5 Youths Arrested in Breaking of Car Windows : Thousand Oaks: Deputies say hard candy and BBs were used to damage more than 50 vehicles during the past three weeks.

They would strike without warning, firing jawbreakers out of the inky blackness of night.

Candy would strike car window, shattering the glass. And before anyone could see, the person who fired the sugar bullets from a high-powered slingshot had fled.

Sheriff’s deputies have arrested five Thousand Oaks teen-agers suspected of using hard candy and BBs--fired from the so-called “wrist rockets”--to break the windows of more than 50 cars in the past three weeks. Deputies estimated the damage at more than $5,000--enough to turn the vandals’ act into a felony.

The suspects, described as males about 16 years of age, were cited for felony vandalism and released to their parents. Police declined to release their names.

The vandalism spree began about May 19 and before ending had touched most of the neighborhoods in northern Thousand Oaks, deputies said. The vandals struck after dark, usually on weekends but sometimes during the week.

Initially, the vandals used BBs shot from wrist rockets, a style of slingshot mounted on the wrist, authorities said. Later, however, they began to use hard candies for ammunition, Detective Paul Richards said.

“Maybe it made a bigger bang,” he said. “Who knows?”

One Thousand Oaks woman found a rear side window of her 1990 Ford smashed Monday morning. Although shaken, she considered herself fortunate. “Everything can be replaced; no one was hurt,” said the woman, who asked not to be identified. “I’ve lived in Thousand Oaks since 1966, and I guess I’m lucky because this is the first thing that’s ever happened.”

Saturday night, a witness watched someone in a van drive up to a parked car. The car’s rear window shattered, and the van drove off. The witness gave deputies the van’s license number, which they traced to a house on Big Sky Drive, Lt. Gary Markley said.

“Without the help of the community, we wouldn’t have caught them so quickly,” Richards said.

The juveniles, arrested Monday at their homes, admitted vandalizing the cars, Richards said. Deputies reportedly recovered three wrist rockets and at least two cartons of BBs in the juveniles’ rooms.

The motive for the vandalism remains unclear, Richards said. “They may have done it for the thrill--they may have done it for a number of reasons,” he said.

Deputies will submit the cases to the county’s youth services department. Youth services officials must then decide whether to handle the cases through formal hearings, held before a judge, or through counseling, community service work, restitution or fines. The decision on which route the cases will take depends on the teen-agers’ criminal history, if any, and their age, among other factors, Richards said.