HUNTINGTON, Indiana – Two juveniles have been arrested in connection to the vandalism of the Huntington Youth Services Bureau building which occurred during the first weekend in March. Both juveniles were arrested on Thursday and each were changed with Burglary as a Level 5 Felony, Criminal Mischief as a Level 6 Felony and Theft as a Class A Misdemeanor. Huntington County Chief Deputy Prosecutor Jamie Groves told the media that he has also filed a waiver to move the proceedings to an adult court. A hearing on that issue will be held in May.
Jan Williams, Executive Director of the Youth Services Bureau of Huntington County, told MiBash News the Monday following the break in that the damage included crushed computer equipment, kicked out walls, stopped up toilets, a destroyed soda machine, the theft of the bureau’s electronic devices and various profane graffiti sprayed all over the walls. The most recent total of the damage comes to over $50,000, Williams said on Sunday.
The good news is the classes on the out-of-school program-side of the building were only down for one week. The damage to the administrative side of the building was much less severe, so employees resumed work at the building the following Monday. Williams also added that police have found two of the laptops stolen in the incident. The Youth Services Bureau has yet to determine, however, whether those computers are salvageable. Items still missing include a projector, multiple iPads, headphones and flash drives.
Williams went on to say that a significant amount of school supplies were destroyed in the incident. At a later date, she said that the Youth Services Bureau will make a call to the community to help replace such items, either through financial contributions or donations of school supplies. More work will be done to repair damage to the building starting the week of April 4th when Huntington-area Schools are having their spring break.