Police say a thief who held up more than a dozen dealerships in the Maryland suburbs of Washington, D.C., over the course of two weeks in August is not even old enough to drive the cars he was stealing.
He is also too young to be arrested and jailed for most nonviolent offenses under the state’s juvenile justice laws, a loophole that has prevented police from stopping the crime spree. The 12-year-old thief has been caught at least eight times, but in each case officers had to release him, TV station WJLA reported.
The boy allegedly grabbed some chocolate bars from a Jaguar dealership showroom before driving away in a car and stole some ice cream from a freezer full of customer snacks after crashing a stolen car into the door of an Audi workshop.
Managers at the targeted dealerships — some of whom feared their businesses could be next — told the TV station they were frustrated, though none agreed to appear on camera.
“In the case of someone under the age of 13, they are completely immune from accountability or consequences for almost all property crimes,” Jason Johnson, president of the Law Enforcement Legal Defense Fund, told WJLA. “Maryland’s juvenile justice system is set up so that there are few to no consequences for most young people engaging in criminal activity.”
The Rockville City Police Department told WJLA it has filed a Child in Need of Supervision request seeking action from the state Department of Youth Services, but the process could take several months.