On January 6th, local law enforcement reported that four kids enjoyed a night of destructive mayhem at a Houston-area CarMax dealership located in the 16100 block of the North Freeway. According to local reports, police were responding to a call where four young males were caught on video surveillance breaking into multiple vehicles. However, things got really interesting after officials learned the cars weren’t being stolen, but rather used to intentionally mangle other vehicles on the lot just for the thrill.
Police claim approximately $800,000 in damages after the group managed to intentionally wreck nearly two dozen automobiles. While none of the suspects’ names have been released, it’s probably safe to assume rowdy teens — mankind’s greatest foe — are to blame.
The story is oddly familiar to an event we covered in 2016, where a trio of teens stole and immediately wrecked three Dodge Hellcats less than a mile into their getaway. Only the Houston juveniles don’t appear to have had any interest in actually stealing the cars. Instead, it seems they broke into the Texas dealership specifically to play bumper cars with its inventory.
According to Harris County Constable Mark Herman (whose Facebook post we found via Jalopnik during our lunch break), the four suspects mashed up 20 vehicles before police arrived. In his post are several photos illustrating the damage, which included a bruised and battered Dodge Challenger R/T Scat Pack, Corvette Z06, Jaguar XE, and a Porsche Boxster.
Herman said further investigation at the scene revealed the group gained access to the dealership keys and used them to open several vehicles used in the destruction before attempting to flee when police reached the scene. “All four juveniles were arrested and booked into the Harris County Juvenile Detention Center, charged with 1st Degree Felony Criminal Mischief,” the Constable said.
[Images: Harris County Constable Mark Herman/Facebook]
Houston (and Florida)…the craziness continues.
Punishment should include paying all damage and repairs out of their own pockets with interest via garnished wages for as long as it takes — even it’s the rest of their sorry lives.
I did stupid stuff like bashing up Hot Wheels with a hammer or building a model car then stuffing a lit M80 through the window — but that kind of behavior is nuts.
How dare you hold Precious and his friends responsible! Don’t you know this is clearly CarMax’s fault?!? You mustn’t make Precious and his friends FEEL BAD!
C’mon…be flexible. Give their Mommies & Daddies a choice in order to make things right— either make full restitution in 2 weeks or a public hanging of their scions in the town square.
Wow, those actions are going to have some pretty severe consequences. 20 minutes of ‘fun’ will for sure result in a life time of payment in one form or another.
Houston. We have a problem.
OK somebody had to say it.
No, nobody had to say that.
In high school I knew a guy who fell asleep behind the wheel of his RX7 and cruised into a car lot where he damaged something like thirteen vehicles. Total damages were less than those achieved by a friend of a friend who accidentally knocked down a utility pole with a power transformer on it, resulting in a bank burning to the ground. I don’t recall knowing anyone who intentionally caused damage comparable to this story.
Im sure you would remember.
Well you can say at least they didn’t hit the streets and kill/maim any innocents in the process.
Bad security and bad parenting. These bumpkins have a dim future.
Peugeot used to have their Head Office for Canada and a ‘small’ compound on the north side of Progress Avenue, just east of Kennedy Road, in Scarborough (a suburb of Toronto).
In or around 1976, a group of ‘juveniles’ climbed into the Peugeot compound and performed the same type of stunt, wrecking most of the cars in the compound.
Maybe they saw the awful decal on the side of that lime green Challenger and decided it had to be rammed to death?
That Bee got stung!
Wow. A slap on the wrist, unless they’re 17, and can be tried as adults. Just next door is McLaren Houston – it’s a good thing they couldn’t get in there.
The teens are like incels. They know they’ll never experience driving a Mustang or a Corvette, so they express their hatred and bitterness by destroying them.
“incels”? How stupid. Here we go with yet another made up term.
Jeez grampa read the news much?
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Incel
Ahem: “Incels (a portmanteau of involuntary celibates) are members of an online subculture who define themselves as unable to find a romantic or sexual partner despite desiring one, a state they describe as inceldom. Self-identified incels are largely white and are almost exclusively male heterosexuals.”
The most ridiculous statement I’ve heard. Trying to equate a 1990 term used to describe political opponents to a small group of teens who are destructive. Get a life.
I can only imagine their uproarious laughter as they threw thier lives away…..
Not to justify their actions in any way, but something isn’t quite clear here… The article claims they “broke into the cars” and then drove them. I somehow suspect these goons couldn’t hot wire a car on a bet, so the implication I’m seeing is that the cars were locked with the keys inside??
The article says they obtained the keys.
Iirc that lot has keys in a lock box on the passenger window. Salesmen carries the master keys. Don’t know where the keys spend the night. Salesmen, golf cart and passengers peruse the lot but the golf cart may have been because we are old. Anyway the kids just had to know where the master keys were kept.
Iirc that lot has keys in a lock box on the passenger window. Salesmen carries the master keys. Don’t know where the keys spend the night. Salesmen, golf cart and passengers peruse the lot but the golf cart may have been because we are old. Anyway the kids just had to know where the master keys were kept.
In another part of the article, it states that they gained access to the dealership car keys. So, they didn’t really break into the cars; they, somehow, got hold of the cars’ keys first, and that’s how they did their parking lot joy-riding.
I can’t imagine these punks having the wherewithal to be breaking-and-entering the facility, so there was likely an external lock-box that held the vehicle keys, maybe secured with a flimsy padlock, and that’s what these geniuses managed to get into.
It looks like they actually broke into the dealership building and took the keys off the rack.
“Herman said further investigation at the scene revealed the group gained access to the dealership keys and used them to open several vehicles used in the destruction”
The article says they “gained access to the dealership keys”. To your point, how secure were said keys? Apparently not secure enough.
“Herman said further investigation at the scene revealed the group gained access to the dealership keys and used them to open several vehicles used in the destruction before attempting to flee when police reached the scene.” Read all the way to the end and the answer will be revealed my friend. ;)
You make a valid point, as the Mustang has a lockbox on the window, where the keys are usually kept, and those things are damn near impossible to open. I am guessing someone stole a lockbox key from the dealership.
That’s just depressing.
These kids were black and Hispanic. They will never serve any time for the crimes they commit until they are adults. The comments here about making them pay for the damage are laughable. They will never have real jobs and never pay taxes. These are the flotsam and trash that live in the big cities and survive on entitlements and drug dealing. I’ve seen this often in my capacity as a law enforcement officer. Just chalk it up as a loss and let the insurance companies deal with this. Eventually, we will all pay for this damage through higher premiums.
does anyone think white rich kids get the same punishments black and brown kids get? what a bunch of out of touch old FOX news biddies.
One reason this occurs is that no one is ever held responsible. If I were the Judge, I would confiscate the parents homes and sell them to pay for the damages. Make sure it makes all the newspapers too. Signed, a victim of vandalism.
Glad this wasn’t on _MY_ lawn =8-^ .
Dang kids, grumble, mutter, b*tch moan complain……..
-Nate
Throw the book at them.
Surely the cumulative value of the wrecked vehicles greatly exceeds the cumulative value these feral vermin will ever bring to civilized society.
Civilized society should deal with them with accordingly.
Hmm, I dunno. Combine all the page views from this site, Jalopnik, the police Facebook page, and all the news sites that carried it, and it may be that a lot of people got entertainment out of it. If 5 million people read the story, did they each get 16 cents worth of satisfaction out of it? Maybe, maybe not.
Interestingly, that raises the question, should ad revenues obtained from “sensationalistic” journalism be taxed at a higher rate? That would be an odd debate to listen in on.
I take a far longer-term view, taking into account their probable future crimes and incarceration expenses. Better to get rid of them sooner rather than later.
so they should be executed, Miata Gramps?
Why would you keep them around, JD?
They will get “home on probation” and will pay nothing or nearly nothing. Those who think differently don’t know how things work. If they were adults, they would do a few days in jail, be ordered to pay restitution and would also pay nothing. Get real, people. This is a property crime. Drug abuse and property crime, including theft, are not taken seriously any more in MANY jurisdictions. If you are a merchant, good luck.
The fashion today is to end “over-incarceration” and substitute “rehabilitation.” If you did not mutilate, rape or murder another human being, you have a great chance to avoid jail. And it is rare indeed for a judge to put someone in custody for failure to pay restitution. The order is made, and promptly ignored.
You aren’t wrong, which basically leaves vigilantism as the sole option by which the civilized are left to “deal with” societal vermin.
? Including the white inbred, methheads ? .
I didn’t think so, nice try .
-Nate
Why wouldn’t they be included? Vermin is vermin. You’re the one suggesting it’s a racial issue.
Money matters, prior record matters, but race alone? BS, unless you are talking about offense rates….
My point exactly .
-Nate
” but race alone? BS “
I’m glad you are given a forum to air your views, -Nate, even though they are racist. I do not believe in censorship. Give people the space to expose who they are and what they believe. I disagree with your racism, but, unlike the left, I defend your right to express it.
-NotNate
That’s cute ~ I politely address the endless racism here and you call _me_ the racist ? .
Right out of Josef Gobbles play book, no one who’s honest will fall for it .
-Nate
If anyone’s got the playbook on eliminating honest discourse, it is certainly you. Do you care about what any of the words you use mean? Politely? Endless? Racism? Maybe your book was actually written by Trotsky. He’s being credited with creating cultural Marxism these days.
LOL. Someone needs a safe space. Quickly! Bring this child a safe space, STAT!
what If I think Miata grandpa is vermin?
I’d be curious about your reasoning, and especially how you’d compare me – a law-abiding and productive member of civilized society – to the obvious criminal filth that are the subject of this article.