Tip leads to alleged statue, park vandals
CRANBERRY TWP — When Cranberry police were looking for three teenagers accused of vandalizing property in Graham Park, they asked for — and received — help from the public.
What they may not have expected was one of the boys' mothers turning him in.
The three teens, all of whom are 16 or 17 years old, have all been identified and charged with “at least” misdemeanors pertaining to an alleged vandalism spree lasting three hours in the early morning hours of Sept. 21.
Between 1 a.m. and 4 a.m., police said, the youths defaced the statue of a Western Pennsylvania icon; broke soap dispensers, a fob keypad entryway to a building and a golf cart; and ripped a gutter off a building.While assessment of the vandalism is ongoing, police Sgt. Chuck Mascellino estimated the damage to be between $1,500 and $2,000.Perhaps the most meaningful casualty of the night was the marring of a wood-carved Roberto Clemente statute, which no longer has hands or a bat, and has been standing stoically beside the Miracle League of Southwestern Pennsylvania Field since 2017.The Miracle League field provides opportunities for children and young adults with disabilities to play baseball on a field optimized for their needs.Clemente is an MLB Hall-of-Famer who played 18 seasons for the Pittsburgh Pirates. He died at age 38 in a plane crash off the coast of Puerto Rico while en route to deliver aid to earthquake victims in Nicaragua on Dec. 31, 1972, cementing his legacy as not only a baseball legend, but also a humanitarian figure in Western Pennsylvania.The police department posted still photos from a surveillance video to its Facebook page at 11 a.m. that morning, asking for help in identifying the three alleged actors.When the tips came in, Mascellino said the identification of all three teens started when a woman recognized one of them as her son. By 2:30 p.m., all three were known to police.Because the three accused are younger than age 18, no public information is available on their names or charges.
