(NewsNation) — A group of teens broke into an $8 million Florida home to throw a house party — with video showing some also holding a boxing match — and now the local sheriff’s office is trying to find who is responsible.
The Walton County Sheriff’s Office posted a few of the videos and photos recorded during the incident on social media. They have fielded some criticism, however, for not blurring the faces of the people involved, even though some are juveniles.
Sheriff Michael A. Adkinson Jr. said on NewsNation’s “Morning in America” that this pushback is part of the problem.
“Clearly your child did something wrong, and yet you’re here as a parent trying to make excuses for him, instead of doing what is appropriate and accepting responsibility,” he said. “There have been a number of parents that have called and said, ‘Listen, my child’s there, they’re going to be accountable. But it’s been a little shocking, the number of people who said, ‘No, how dare you show my child?'”
The reality of the situation is it was a burglary, Adkinson said. Homeowners said the teens used a crowbar to get inside the locked home. Thousands of dollars in personal items were stolen, they said, and the teens who broke in tried on the homeowner’s clothes and drank their alcohol.
“This is an invasion of privacy. There are people that live in this home. I mean, this is where this family spends Christmas, this is their everyday residence,” Adkinson said.
Social media helped police identify who most of the teens at the party were.
Some of the kids who have been caught told police they didn’t realize that the home was being burglarized— they just thought they were going to a house party.
Adkinson said the party had been advertised the week before it happened.
“Clearly they know what they were going to do when the family left the residence,” he said.