5 Arrested as Vandals Who Used Candy in Slingshots

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

Candy would hit car windows, shattering the glass. And before anyone could identify the culprits, whoever shot the sugar bullets from a high-powered slingshot had fled.

But sheriff’s deputies eventually tracked them down and this week arrested five Thousand Oaks teen-agers suspected of using hard candy and BBs, fired from “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 crime into a felony.

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

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

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

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

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 plate number, which they traced to a house on Big Sky Drive, Lt. Gary Markley said.

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

The motive for the vandalism remains unclear, Richards said.

Deputies will submit the cases to the Ventura County youth services department. Youth services officials will 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 take depends on the teen-agers’ criminal history, if any, and their ages, among other factors, Richards said.