ST. AUGUSTINE, Fla. -- Twice in two weeks, the St. Johns County Sheriff's Office says kids managed to steal a car, get behind the wheel and crash.
Two kids ages 12 and 14 have now taken into custody twice in a matter of days. The St. John's County Sheriff's Office says the two friends face grand theft charges after stealing and wrecking a vehicle earlier this month and then a second one on Friday.
"Who knows. Who knows if they learned their lesson," said Corporal Catherine Payne.
Local dad Chris Mills has been through the same scenario with his own son. He believes these kids won't learn their lesson either.
"My son, he would go to court, we would go to court, he would re-offend within a week," he said.
Mills says even after multiple arrests in St Johns County, his teenage son would be back out committing crimes. He says his son's punishments were never tough enough.
"Grand theft. Breaking into people's cars. Car hopping. Even cannabis and he was getting a slap on the wrist."
A growing binder now holds each incident that his son has been involved in. But it's not his son paying the price. He's the one left dealing with the mounting court costs. He says until something changes, he can almost guarantee he'll be adding to the binder. And the parents of the kids who are charged with stealing the cars probably will, too.
"I feel if you do the crime you gotta pay the time. I think the sooner you have harsher penalties hopefully the sooner they'll get it and they'll understand what they're doing is not going to be accepted or tolerated," Mills said.
Deputies say luckily in both of these instances no one was injured.
The St Johns County Sheriff's Office says the Department of Juvenile Justice will decide the punishment for the crimes. Action News is told it is all based on a point system so the 14-year-old with new grand theft charges from the most recent incident will likely see an increased penalty.
At this point, the sheriff's office continues to investigate if there was more to it than two boys taking joyrides.
