Crime & Safety
Tire Slashing Soquel Teens Arrested for $50K Vandalism Spree
Almost 90 cars had their tires slashed in February in Aptos and Soquel.

Super Bowl Sunday was sad for locals, not just because the San Francisco 49ers lost, but because 89 residents in Soquel and Aptos had their tires slashed by a pair of teenage vandals.
On Feb. 4, almost 100 people woke up to find that their cars were immobilized.
"I've seen multiple cars vandalized at once before, but this is a lot. This is not normal," Deputy April Skalland said that day.
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Over a month after the incident, sheriff's deputies arrested two teenage boys, one 15 and the other 16-years-old, on vandalism charges connected to the tire slashings. The 15-year-old is a Soquel High Student, while the 16-year-old attends Wagner Cottage.
"We were investigating it for a while. We followed up on leads from witness statements and watched surveillance videos," Skalland said.
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Both boys are Soquel residents, and both are still in custody, Skalland said.
Investigators put a conservative estimate of $50,000 in damages caused by the juvenile duo. Their parents will have to foot the bill if the teenagers are found guilty, Skalland said.
The boys are also accused of throwing a large rock at a car on Highway 1 that same morning, causing the vehicle to crash. According to KSBW, CHP officers said that crash could have been deadly if someone had been riding in the front passenger seat.
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