news-record.com

GREENSBORO — Two former Grimsley High School students have been charged with 11 crimes each — including two felonies — in connection with vandalism and break-ins discovered at the school on Monday, according to police.

Police declined to name a 16-year-old former student because his arrest warrants had not been served on Thursday. The name of the 15-year-old former student charged on juvenile petitions was not released because of his age.

Each was charged with a count of breaking and entering and larceny and a count of attempted breaking and entering — both felonies, according to police. They were both also charged with two counts of trespassing, two counts of vandalism and five counts of vandalism to a motor vehicle for graffiti spraypainted on four school buses and the school resource officer’s patrol car.

Greensboro Police Officer Marc Ridgill, Grimsley’s school resource officer, said his first hint that the teens were former Grimsley students was the fact that in the vandalism, they spelled his name correctly.

In all, several school buildings, four school buses, the batting cage between Grimsley and Kiser Middle School and Ridgill’s patrol car were vandalized and the school’s field house was broken into.

The orange spraypaint used to deface the buildings and cars was stolen from the high school’s fieldhouse, Ridgill said.

“They used our own spraypaint against us,” he said.

Ridgill said the vandalism and break-ins happened at about 3:30 a.m. Monday but, because the teens spraypainted their nicknames on everything, he was able to tie them to the crimes by 2 p.m. Monday.

Contact Sonja Elmquist at 373-7090 or sonja.elmquist@news-record.com