3 Teenagers Charged in Vandalism at Cemetery

Three teenagers have turned themselves in to police after allegedly toppling 250 headstones and shattering two statues and causing an estimated $1 million in damage at a Boyle Heights cemetery over the weekend, authorities said Monday.

Two of the juveniles, a 17-year-old boy and 14-year-old girl who live nearby, reportedly confessed Sunday after they saw news of what they had done on television, said Los Angeles Police Det. Sal Nares. They apparently became remorseful and told their parents of their deeds. The parents took them to the Hollenbeck police station, he said.

“My hat’s off to the parents,” Nares said. “They were like, ‘You’re going to have to pay the piper here.’ ”

A third suspect, a 14-year-old boy, was arrested Monday afternoon based on information provided by the other two, Nares said. The three, who were not identified because they are juveniles, were charged with vandalism.

Just before the Saturday night destruction at the historic Odd Fellows Cemetery, the suspects allegedly drank a 12-pack of beer and lit a small campfire on the cemetery grounds, Nares said. Then they ripped up sprinkler systems and, wielding a stone cross, destroyed quartz statues and headstones, some of which dated back to the Civil War, he said.

“They just went nuts over a 12-pack of beer,” he said.

Roy King, a member of the cemetery’s board of directors, said it is difficult to assess the total cost of the damage. “The most significant cost is going to be thousands of man-hours required to reset the monuments,” he said.

The headstones weigh between 40 and 600 pounds, he said. Some must be reattached to foundations set in the ground.

“This is downright mean,” said Aida Bobadilla, the cemetery’s manager. “There’s no respect. It’s too bad that cemeteries have to be fenced now for their protection.”

King said it was the worst act of vandalism in at least 10 years at the 143-year-old cemetery, the burial place of such notable Angelenos as Leo Carrillo, a Mexican American actor who played Pancho in the radio and TV show “The Cisco Kid.”