An Upstate New York woman has been arrested after allegedly driving children around on a vandalism spree.
WIVB reports Stacy Matthews, 39, of Buffalo, is accused of taking kids between the ages of 10 and 16 to multiple locations and allowing them to vandalize property. The incidents included damage to The Terrace at Delaware Park on four separate occasions this past summer, costing the restaurant thousands of dollars after eggs were thrown thrown at windows and furniture was tossed into Hoyt Lake.
The Buffalo Police Department said the group also allegedly threw rocks at cars on Dearborn Street on Aug. 15, damaging five vehicles. On Oct. 16, police said the suspects took trash out of the dumpsters at the Tops Friendly Markets store on Elmwood Avenue and threw the garbage around the lot.
WKBW reports the most recent issue occurred Wednesday, Nov. 19, when two 11-year-old girls were allegedly causing a problem at the same Tops supermarket and refusing to leave. The girls allegedly told officers they were waiting to be picked up; when a driver arrived, the officers recognized her as a suspect in the vandalism cases and apprehended her without incident.
Police said the youths were under Matthews’ care at the time, but did not specify her relationship to them.
Matthews has been charged with 21 counts of endangering the welfare of a child, as well as one count each of second-degree criminal mischief, third-degree criminal mischief, third-degree criminal tampering, and second-degree criminal nuisance.
