Teenagers charged in damage to soccer fields

EAST BRUNSWICK - Four township teenagers have been arrested after they allegedly drove their vehicles onto local soccer fields and damaged the surfaces.

The damage was caused in two separate incidents last week at soccer fields located off Cranbury Road.

The first took place at 2:45 p.m. on Oct. 3, which was a Monday that students had off for Yom Kippur. Police responded to the area of the Middlesex County Fairgrounds on a report of a white Toyota being driven on the township-owned fields. When Patrolman Robert Allen arrived, he saw the vehicle in question in the parking lot being driven at a high rate of speed.

A total of six township juveniles were present, and two of them, both 17-year-old males who reside in East Brunswick, admitted to driving the vehicle on the fields, according to report from the East Brunswick Police Department.

Police said the other individuals may have been video-taping the two as they drove on the fields.

Damage was estimated at $1,000, and the two suspects accused of driving the vehicle were charged with criminal mischief. Their identities were not released because they are minors.

The second incident took place at 5:31 p.m. Oct. 5, when police were again dispatched to the area of the Fairgrounds on a report of a vehicle damaging the soccer fields. This time the vehicle involved was a black Jeep wagon, which was spotted by the responding officers on Cranbury Road.

Patrolmen Felix De La Cruz and Mike Plaskon stopped the vehicle on Merrill Avenue and found it had fresh mud and hydro seeding material stuck to it, according to a police report. The fields that were damaged had recently been hydro seeded.

Police said a subsequent investigation determined that 18-year-old Andrew Chin and a 17-year-old male, both from East Brunswick, had participated in the damage to the fields. Both were charged with criminal mischief and were released with court dates.