Teen cemetery vandals put in juvenile center

UNITY – Two girls ages 13 and 14 who were arrested after a vandalism spree at a cemetery behind the church on Quaker Hill Road have been placed in a juvenile detention center.

Maine State Police Trooper Thomas Welch said Saturday the girls were taken to a detention hearing at District Court in Rockland on Thursday, then placed in the Juvenile Detention Center at Charleston pending a decision by Officer Dan Delahanty of Juvenile Services of the Department of Corrections in Belfast.

Welch said he did not know how long the juveniles would remain in custody.

Authorities became aware of the vandalism Tuesday morning when state police received a report of a stolen car. Welch said the girls were apprehended with the car later that day in Oakland and confessed to the vandalism.

“They thought what they had done was funny,” Welch said.

Altogether 42 gravestones of the 250 grave sites in the Quaker Hill Cemetery were upended or broken. The girls also admitted breaking into the nearby Quaker Hill Christian Church and stealing paint from the supply room, painting the basement floor and cupboards, breaking glassware and leaving graffiti on the walls upstairs.

gchappell@bangordailynews.net

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