Three teenagers who told police they walked into the Mary Esther Gonzales Senior Center on Alto Street through an unlocked door are accused of causing more than $30,000 in damage inside the city-owned facility early Monday.
Santa Fe police arrested the juveniles, two 13-year-olds and a 14-year-old — the older brother of one of the younger suspects — on suspicion of criminal damage to property and burglary.
Police responded to an alarm call and found the trio playing video games on a computer and wandering inside.
One of the boys told police they went into the senior center with no real purpose.
“Just being dumb,” the boy told an officer, according to a police report.
Police received the alarm call just before 4 a.m. Officers described extensive damage inside the senior center, from shattered glass on a vending machine and a broken pool cue to a fire extinguisher being discharged on a pool table and in the main kitchen, which the report said was “nearly covered with a light yellow powder.”
Police also said numerous food items from a storage area and commercial walk-in freezer “had been either poured on the floor or container had been broken with the contents spilled out.”
City spokeswoman Lilia Chacon said Thursday the mess was quickly cleaned up “and the seniors didn’t miss a beat in terms of services.”
Police released the boys to their mothers after the arrests.
