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Highlands Today

LP Teens Charged With Vandalizing Holiday Inn

POLICE: THEY SCRIBBLED RACIAL SLURS, SWASTIKAS

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Brad Dickerson

Published: January 12, 2009

LAKE PLACID - Two juveniles were taken into custody Saturday after allegedly vandalizing a local Holiday Inn Express.

Lake Placid Police Chief Phil Williams said the teenagers, both 15, were charged with damaging property/criminal mischief over $200 and trespassing, both misdemeanors.

"They basically defaced the lounge area and drew things on the mirrors and all the walls," Williams said.

The lounge area in question was on the hotel's second floor, according to the arrest report. Williams added that some of the graffiti included racial slurs and pictures of swastikas.

The suspects allegedly removed food from the kitchen and used it to draw on the walls and windows.

Damage was also done to the pool area. The juveniles reportedly threw all the outdoor furniture into the pool, broke the glass in several small tables and emptied trash cans into the hot tub, the report stated.

The dollar amount of the damages was between $500 and $700, according to Williams. That figure, however, was only an estimate, according to the report.

Officers spoke with a night clerk, who said the front doors had been turned to "guest access only" when her shift started at 11 p.m., Friday. She added that she saw the suspects enter, but thought they were guests and did not stop them.

The damage was discovered around 5 a.m., Saturday. As staff was busy cleaning the second floor, the smell of urine was noticed.

Two chairs were found soaked in urine and had to be replaced, the report stated.

A security video was able to get footage of the two juveniles and a physical description of the suspects was obtained.

Around 7:30 a.m., a deputy with the Highlands County Sheriff's Office contacted Lake Placid Officer Mark Schneider and said he was out on a suspicious persons complaint, and the subjects sounded like the individuals responsible for the hotel vandalism, according to the arrest report.

The officer met up with the sheriff's deputy, who had the two suspects with him. They were reportedly wearing the same clothes as the persons in the hotel surveillance video. At the time, the two were arrested.

Both allegedly said they "were just trying to have a little fun and did not mean to hurt anyone," the report stated. They added that the front doors to the hotel opened when they walked up to them, and were not locked.

They also reportedly said they did not mean anything offensive by the swastika and racial slurs, but simply "thought they were funny."

Hotel managers said Monday that all the damage had been cleaned up.

Highlands Today reporter Brad Dickerson can be reached at (863) 386-5838 or bdickerson@highlandstoday.com

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