Teen vandals wreak $30K in damage at newly opened Venice Island Park [video]

Philadelphia Police released video on Friday night in the hopes of identifying teenagers who caused up to $30,000 worth of damage to Venice Island Park on Nov. 8.

Officers with the Fifth Police District responded to the Rector Street site just before 2 a.m. last Saturday.

After noticing “extensive damage” to the Venice Island site, they reviewed surveillance tape and saw one of two teens “breaking the LED accent lights around the lawn [and pulling] out the rope lighting from the handrails of the stairs.”

Damage was estimated between $20,000 and $30,000.

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The suspects are described as two thin white males between the ages of 14 and 16. One has long brown hair and was wearing a gray long-sleeved sweatshirt, blue jeans and a black knit skull cap; the other has dark hair and was wearing khaki pants and a blue shirt with a white logo.

Just last month, Venice Island’s new recreation center and storm-water project opened in Manayunk a ribbon-cutting ceremony led by Mayor Michael Nutter, City Councilman Curtis Jones Jr., U.S. Rep. Chaka Fattah and others.

Venice Island now boasts a $46 million state-of-the-art performing-arts and recreation facility, basketball court, outdoor amphitheater, rain gardens and, among other facets, an underground storage basin.

Anyone with information about the case is asked to call Northwest Detective Division at (215) 686-3353/54 or the tips line at (215) 686-TIPS, text a tip to PPD TIP (773847) or send it in via the department’s website.

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