There’s no way to write about “the teens” without sounding like an old fuddy-duddy (what with their TikToks, intricate memes and 6-7s), but there’s nothing more terrifying than a “bored” 17-year-old with too much time on their hands. The Club at Venetian Bay in New Smyrna Beach, Fl. found this out the hard way, as did one teen, who’s now in a boatload of trouble after a very-not-harmless prank.
Police arrested the culprit at Atlantic High School on Monday after discovering that he was the individual behind a prank that destroyed a golf course hole and resulted in potentially $160K in damages.
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Footage was captured on October 19th of a car doing donuts and ripping up the green on the second hole. However, it wasn’t until this week, after a $10,000 reward-for-information offer, that a suspect was brought in. He eventually admitted to the crime and is now facing second-degree felony charges of criminal mischief. The reason behind the costly destruction? Boredom.
“(He) confessed to causing the damage because they were bored,” Volusia Sheriff Mike Chitwood stated. “Didn’t think there was anything else to do at 2:30 in the morning.
“When you’re 16 or 17 years old and you’re the one responsible, you’re telling somebody or a lot of somebodies. He told friends, and there may have been some social media exchanges we’re looking into as well … The rumor on the street is he actually filmed the vandalism in progress. If he deleted it from his phone, which we believe he did, he was tampering with evidence.”
Because of the teen’s age, his name hasn’t been released, but it’s not looking great for him after destroying 7,000 square feet of the local course in his bout of late-night vandalism. He’s being held in the Family Resource Center in Daytona Beach without bond.
The course itself is in “good shape” and will have to fix up the second hole in March or April next year, when they’ll have time to “strip and replace the sod.” For now, the damaged greens have been filled with sand to keep things playable.
Chitwood recapped the entire saga with an age-old saying: “I’ll use a line that my grandmother relayed on me, ‘Nothing good happens after 10 o’clock at night.’”
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