LIMA — Police expect to file charges soon against four children accused of vandalizing the Children’s Garden behind the Allen County Museum on Monday, a police lieutenant said Thursday.
Police are not releasing the names of the four, but Lt. Andy Green said one is an 11-year-old boy, two others are 15-year-old boys, and there was a 15-year-old girl involved.
The teens are not in custody, he said. The investigation will be turned over to the juvenile prosecutor’s office.
The break in the case came after the photos of the four appeared on Facebook. One of the parents of the children called police to identify the girl and police contacted another parent once and that parent identified his son, Green said.
“They were identified through Facebook,” Green said.
A third parent also has come forward, Green said.
Police got the photos of the children from surveillance video. The vandalism at the garden — flipping over picnic tables, pulling plants, knocking over planters and breaking signs —was captured on surveillance video, Green said.
Police noticed the children walked from the direction of the library so officers contacted library officials to look at video from the library’s cameras. That is where police received good enough pictures to post on Facebook that ultimately led to identifying the four, Green said.
The case will be reviewed for charges, which Green said could be at the felony level especially since garden officials placed damage estimates at $2,000.
Green said there were two other vandalism crimes in the past two weeks at the garden. Those remain under investigation, and it’s too early to say whether the juveniles connected to the most-recent incident were responsible for the first two crimes, Green said.
