A Maryland teen busted for allegedly breaking into 121 cars in a single night was ordered released within hours — and irate local police say more than a dozen more cars were looted the next day.
The suspect — a 16-year-old boy — was arrested late last week by the Laurel Police Department after dozens of auto break-in reports came pouring into their office on the morning of May 4.
The crimes spanned Laurel, surrounding part of Prince George’s County and nearby Howard County, with surveillance footage from across the area capturing a gang of three teens roving around in a stolen car and smashing open the windows of whatever vehicles they came across.
“They were just simply going through neighborhoods and targets of opportunity, breaking into cars,” Laurel Police Chief Russ Hamill told News4. “If there was something in there, they’d steal. If there was nothing in there, they’d move to another car.”
An investigation led police to the teenage suspect’s home, where nearly 20 car keys, credit cars, and other stolen items that “managed to link him to all 121 events throughout the region,” Hamill said in a news conference Wednesday.
“I would like to tell you that’s the end of the story there. But that’s not the end of the story,” Hamill added.
After the boy was taken into custody, Laurel Police and the Maryland State Attorney’s office requested that the boy remain in the juvenile detention center due to the scale of his alleged crimes.
But police were rebuffed because of the boy’s lack of a previous criminal record — with the state characterizing the offenses as “lower level crime” — and he was ordered to be sent home.
“I would offer well over 100 cases in one night, gives you a pretty good record,” Hamill said. “These were not violent crimes, as if that lessens the impact on those 121 victims.”
“Yes, five hours after we were at his house, he was released back into the community, back into the environment that allowed him to be out roaming the streets in all of these counties, late at night and in the early morning, doing these crimes to begin with,” he added.
And the very next night, there was another spate of break-ins in Laurel — though Hamill stopped short of saying it was the work of the suspect and his cohorts.
“We’re not gonna lay every theft from auto in the region on him and his group, but I will note we had 17 the next night,” Hamill said.
Two other teens have been identified as the boy’s alleged accomplices, and are expected to be arrested soon.
The group faces charges of multiple thefts from automobiles, and motor vehicle theft, according to ABC 7.
Hamill characterized the system that let the boy go as “broken.”
“I have little hope that there will be further accountability for him due to this broken system,” he told reporters. “Due to this gap in concern for his safety, and the public’s safety.”