Crime Fix with Angenette Levy - Florida Moms Rat Out Teen Sons to Cops for Trashing School: Sheriff

Episode Date: September 21, 2025

A pair of moms in Volusia County, Florida recognized their sons as the two kids in surveillance images who were wanted for trashing a library in an elementary school and turned them into the sheriff's office. Sheriff Mike Chitwood posted video of the damage from body-worn cameras and images of the masked perpetrators on facebook and received several tips. Law&Crime's Angenette Levy goes through the footage and the charges the boys face in this episode of Crime Fix — a daily show covering the biggest stories in crime.PLEASE SUPPORT THE SHOW:Head to https://cozyearth.com and use my code LAWANDCRIME for 40% off! And if you get a Post-Purchase Survey, make sure to let them know you heard about Cozy Earth right here!Host:Angenette Levy  https://twitter.com/Angenette5Guest:Dr. Jeffery Gardere https://www.instagram.com/drjeffgardereProducer:Jordan ChaconCRIME FIX PRODUCTION:Head of Social Media, YouTube - Bobby SzokeSocial Media Management - Vanessa BeinVideo Editing - Daniel CamachoGuest Booking - Alyssa Fisher & Diane KayeSTAY UP-TO-DATE WITH THE LAW&CRIME NETWORK:Watch Law&Crime Network on YouTubeTV: https://bit.ly/3td2e3yWhere To Watch Law&Crime Network: https://bit.ly/3akxLK5Sign Up For Law&Crime's Daily Newsletter: https://bit.ly/LawandCrimeNewsletterRead Fascinating Articles From Law&Crime Network: https://bit.ly/3td2IqoLAW&CRIME NETWORK SOCIAL MEDIA:Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/lawandcrime/Twitter: https://twitter.com/LawCrimeNetworkFacebook: https://www.facebook.com/lawandcrimeTwitch: https://www.twitch.tv/lawandcrimenetworkTikTok: https://www.tiktok.com/@lawandcrimeSee Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

Wondery Plus subscribers can binge all episodes of this Law and Crimes series ad-free right now. Join Wondry Plus in the Wondery app, Apple Podcasts, or Spotify. May I have your attention, please? May I have your attention, please? There's the fire record in the boat. Two Florida kids are accused of breaking into a school, not to study, but to trash the place. I have the full story and the shocking details on how they ended up in handcuffs. Welcome to Crime Fix. I'm Annionette Levy. You know, it's not too often that you hear that kids are sneaking into school. But in Volusia County, Florida, the sheriff says that happened. A fire alarm went off at Friendship Elementary School in Deltona north of Sanford on September 14th. It was just after 1 a.m. Take a lot. look.

Upon arrival, the deputies dodge shattered glass on the floor, which was likely broken when the intruders broke into the room. Deputies make their way through the media center to ensure that the scene is clear. May I have your attention, please. May I have your attention, please. Secondary? If you guys want to keep that drumming cat door. If you guys want to keep going, I'll do a secondary in here.

Now, it's painfully obvious to these Volusia County Sheriff's deputies that the library has been vandalized, but so far, there are no signs as to who or why this elementary school was ripped apart. May I have your attention, please? May I have your attention, please? Hey, did we go through this door? There's been a fire being put in the building. Please proceed to the first exit and leave the building. Now, in case you're wondering, why the deputies are not running from a fire despite the fire alarm, well, they can tell pretty obviously there's no smoke, there are no flames, just lots and lots of damage.

So was the fire alarm triggered by mistake or by the break-in? Or was the fire alarm activated maybe on purpose so the vandals could watch the chaos that they caused? We don't know. May I have your attention, please? May I have your attention, please? May I have your attention, please? May I have your attention, please? There's the fire report in the building.

Please get to the first exit and move the building. When the deputy turns, we get a good look at the door that was damaged. On the floor mat, you can see all of the glass shattered, and it even appears as if the vandalism started outside of the library door. You can see the chair on its side. Luckily for the deputies, the outside cameras captured two young people of interest. Those screenshots were released to the public, and what happens next is pretty interesting. The sheriff, Mike Chitwood, says several people saw those screenshots and recognize the vandals. And guess what? So did their own mothers. The moms of these two boys

turned their sons over to the sheriff. This is likely a lesson those boys will never, ever forget. 12-year-old Felix Romero and 13-year-old Bentley Wearily confessed, according to the sheriff, to causing $50,000 in damages to the media center. The sheriff said they broke into the school during the day, but then returned later to wreak even more havoc. Let's take one more look at the video that Volusia County posted and that caught the eyes of the moms. If you guys want to keep going, I'll do a secondary in here. May I have your attention, please. May I have your attention please? There's no power in the building. There's been a fire in the building. Please. Please do we go through this door? First exit and leave the building.

May I have your attention, please. May I have your attention, please. Just, I know. No. May I have your attention please. May I have your attention, please. There's the fire recorded in the building. Please proceed to the first exit and leave the building.

Lock. With my job, I'm always on the run, which can sometimes leave me feeling a little homesick. And when life or work is stressful and you're feeling burned out, don't you start longing for that one spot in your home that's supposed to be the most comforting of all your bed? Well, for me, that's especially true ever since I switched to cozy earth. Cozy Earth has these bamboo sheets that are temperature regulating, which means I'm not waking up sweaty or freezing. I'm just comfortable all night long. And let me tell you, the bubble cuddle blanket. The best. Total game changer. It's ridiculously soft. It has this textured bubble design that looks amazing. It's draped over the couch or whether it's on the bed. And it's the kind of blanket that everyone in the house is fighting over. Here's the thing. Once you feel the difference, you get why cozy earth stands out. They even give you a 100-night sleep trial. So if you don't love them, you can send them back. Plus, a 10-year warranty because comfort like this should last. for the long haul. So head on over to cozyearth.com and use my code law and crime for 40% off.

And if you see that post purchase survey, let them know you heard about cozy earth right here because your bed should not just be where you sleep. It should be your happy place. Cozy Earth makes that happen. I want to bring in Dr. Jeffrey Gardier. He is a board certified clinical psychologist and also works a lot with families. So, Dr. Gardier, you know, this case to me is, you know, good parenting on some level because you have moms recognizing their kids doing something really awful, vandalism. I mean, this is vandalism to the extreme, and turning them into the cops. So talk to me as a clinical psychologist, what you see there. Well, I think it is good parenting. I do have some questions about the,

way that they were identified given that they are minors, but I think all parents really need to, I know it can be very difficult for them, Anjanet, but I think it's important that they take responsibility for the actions of their children. At the end of the day, I know it makes a lot of common sense, but they are the adults in the room. And I really am one who believes in therapeutic interventions, and I think there needs to be a therapeutic intervention here. with these particular families. But at the same time, it's important for children to know consequences. To know what it is that they've done has to be answered with some sort of a consequence,

that they just can't walk away or skip through a particular event where there's been bad behavior. If that doesn't happen, certainly, if they don't see those consequences, then they may just continue to do this sort of thing. But again, and I'm sure you'll get to it, I think it's important that a clinical intervention might be appropriate for these children who, by the way, I know you hear it all the time, but I have not examined, so I can't speak to them specifically.

Sure, of course, and we need to be clear about that. You don't know these people. You have not met them. You have not done an evaluation. of these kids. So we're kind of just talking, you know, from a 50,000 foot level kind of looking down into this. Exactly. Or kids that may fit this particular profile or certain things that we've seen in the past. My question is, how do the kids get to this point? Because I hate to say this. Maybe this is a one-off or maybe it's not. I mean, this is something where the sheriff is saying

the kids went into the school they did damage and then they went back and then did more damage $50,000 at least in damage to an elementary school and kids are impulsive you know they do dumb things

this part of their brain up here you know in covering crime for so many years the prefrontal cortex that you know regulates impulse control and things like that it's just not fully developed But I would be shocked if this is the first time these kids maybe had done something wrong. And maybe the moms are like, we don't know what else to do. Like, you did what?

And I'm turning you in because maybe this is, you know, the only way they're going to get some help for their kids. And I hope they get help and not just like punished. Sure, absolutely. Again, I don't know enough about the moms and the kids. But in my previous experience in working with children who've been involved in vandalism, especially if it's something where they've incurred a lot of financial damage to whatever the institution or place that it happened, usually what we have seen, that there have been some previous signs, perhaps on a smaller scale, and then it works its way up to something that may be very very important.

egregious or pretty horrible in again in this case we don't really know but when you see something of this kind of magnitude with some of the kids that I've worked with there were warning signs along the way that something may have been going on with the kids and let's also be aware that as parents again taking responsibility for our children we have to also take responsibility for whatever the dynamics are in that particular family. It's easy for kids to be the identified patients, a social work term that you may know about that all of the bad stuff that goes on is with one particular person.

But certainly one of the things that I've learned in my work and that I teach my students is you have to look at the family dynamic. How do certain people or how does the family unit as a whole, how does each person, in that unit take responsibility for what one person may do in society that may be very, very negative. So what do you do with this? Obviously, you haven't met the children, you haven't evaluated them. These are, you know, younger kids, teens. They're in trouble. And they're juveniles. So their records, you know, whatever will happen will happen. They're not going to be charged as adults, I don't believe, you know, with this. This is vandalism. It's, you know,

it's total, you know, destruction of property. There's, there's no loss of life. No one has been injured. And therefore, of course, I don't think you're going to see children in that kind of a capacity, perhaps facing some ultimate punishment of jail time, especially given what their ages may be. But what comes next for any child or children who are in this kind of a situation, I would say it's certainly they have to face the consequences, whether that's suspension at school, whether it is having to do some sort of supervised community service where their parents are supervising them. But I would say, of course, this screams for a psychologist, making sure that the kids get counseling, see what else may be going

on with the children, see what may be going on in the family, where, again, the dynamic has resulted in this particular kind of misbehavior. But it's not just about punishment here, especially with children so young. It's more about there needs to be a clinical intervention to discover what's going on, get in there as early as possible. find out what perhaps that anger may have been, what the aggression may have been about, and then provide the proper services

so that they can address the issues as individuals, as children, but certainly in family therapy. You talked about anger, aggression, and earlier you mentioned what you had seen in vandalism cases before. I mean, what prompts kids to engage in vandalism, because this is vandalism, but this is like vandalism to the extreme. This isn't spray painting on a building or something like that.

I mean, this is, you know, destruction of property. Yeah. Well, one of the things that we tend to see more often would be that vandalism cases are about acting out behaviors, right? and acting out is a term that we use as far as a defense mechanism. It helps a child be able to deal with whatever the angst that they're experiencing, whatever dynamic is going on in their lives, whatever emotional or physical sort of issue that they may be dealing with, whatever unhappiness, whatever loss that they may have.

But as you talked about earlier, the prefrontal cortex, that part of the brain is not developed as yet. So what they do is instead of saying something like, and they're unable to do it, Dr. Jeff, I'm feeling a lot of anger and a loss of impulse control because of the loss of a family member. instead they'll trash a desk or they may perhaps steal an apple or might act out aggressively against someone else. That's the angst that fuels that. So that's why it's really important to go beyond what the manifest behavior is and get into more of what the unconscious or conscious, but more of the what the unconscious motivation going on.

Is it a situation of where they have a beef with someone in the school, or is there something deeper that may be going on psychologically that ends up in this acting out, this manifestation of some sort of anger or confusion or loss, whatever that may be? Well, I don't know what is going to come of these kids or what they're feeling or what they were thinking, but I know that kids. you know, to just boil it down. They do some ridiculous stuff sometimes. Whether or not they feel any regret about it, I don't know. Well, that's what we call ridiculousness, right? A new term. And I would say, again, I haven't examined these children.

I don't know much about them. I don't know much about their families. But I think for any parents or children to be in that kind of a position, I think it's very important, yes, that children deal with the consequences, you know, academically as far as whatever discipline will be taken, but also at the same time, I believe it really does scream that there may be something deeper going on, and we owe it to those children and we owe it to every child to be able to address what it is that may be going on with them and be able to address whatever their issues are and make them productive citizens by giving them what it is

that they truly need, whether it's to discuss it, whether it's some sort of a behavioral intervention, whatever it is they need because children are our future. And so it's really incumbent upon us as the parents to rescue them and move them in the right direction. No child left behind. How important was it for the moms to turn these kids in? Because, you know, the moms might have had some ulterior motives here. We don't know. We don't know. But, you know, because they may be held liable.

They're going to be held liable for their children's actions. They may have to end up ponying up and paying the damages here. But, you know, the moms, they call the sheriff's office, and they're like, those are my kids. And they take their kids down to the sheriff's office, and they're like, here you go. Like, they did it, here they are, and, you know, other people had already identified them as well. So how important was it for those moms to turn in their kids? Well, I believe that it is an emotional investment that they're making right now. And there's that old adage you can pay now or you could pay later.

And the more you pay later, the worst that it is. So I think it's really important that they step up now, address what's going on now, take responsibility now, have their kids take responsibility, they take responsibility for whatever the family dynamic is or what it is that they need to do more of or less of. And I think that, again, honesty is the best policy, and it's a very good lesson for children that when you do something that may harm another person or institutions or whatever the case may be, that kind of acting out behavior, that you will be held accountable. That's part of self-discipline.

It's part of growing up. It's part of making you a responsible adult later in life. No doubt. Well, we'll keep an eye on this and see what happens with it. Dr. Jeffrey Gardier, thank you so much for your time and your insight. I really appreciate it. Thank you for having me. I know I showed that video to you earlier, but let's take a look at it again.

The damage is pretty unbelievable. Freddie, you're good. Yep, you're good. Yep, you're good. May I have your attention, please. May I have your attention, please. Secondary? Please please please

If you guys want to keep going, I'll do a secondary in here. May I have your attention please. May I have your attention, please. Hey, did we go through this door? Please the nurse exit and leave the building. May I have your attention, please. Hey, did we go through this door? There's been a fire decoded in the building. Please proceed to the nurse exit and leave the building.

May I have your attention, please. May I have your attention, please? Just, I know. No. May I have your attention, please? May I have your attention, please? There's the fire recorded in the building. Please do you stay to the nurse exit and leave the building.

Lock. Now, Sheriff Chitwood, down there in Volusia County, Florida. He's been putting young people, kids on blast, on Facebook, who have been accused of causing trouble and making threats, probably in the hopes of getting them to stop it. Both of the boys accused in this vandalism are charged with two counts of burglary, two counts of trespassing on school grounds, criminal mischief and theft. They are juveniles, 12 and 13, so their cases are being handled in juvenile court. And that's it for this episode of Crime Fix.

I'm Ann Janette Levy. Thanks so much for being with me. I'll see you back here next time.