Florida foursome facing felonies for forklift foolery

TAMARAC, Fla., April 17 (UPI) -- A group of five teenagers are facing charges after they used their T-shirts to disguise their faces and took a forklift for a caught-on-camera joyride.

The Broward Sheriff's Office said the five teen boys -- two 14-year-olds, a 15-year-old and two 16-year-olds -- walked through Millennium Middle School Sunday in Tamarac to reach adjoining business Ferguson Plumbing, where three of the teens took a forklift for a joyride.

Deputies said the teenagers wore their T-shirts over their faces to hide their identities and used plastic bags as gloves to avoid leaving fingerprints. They said the teens discharged two fire extinguishers at the business and abandoned the emptied extinguishers in the woods.

"It wasn't just childhood mischief because they were doing things to prevent themselves from being identified, like covering their faces with their shirts, using a plastic bag to avoid leaving any fingerprints," sheriff's spokeswoman Gina Carter told the South Florida Sun-Sentinel.

The teens set off the alarm at the business and deputies soon arrived to arrest the teens following a brief foot chase.

"Once the deputies got there they fled the scene, so it's not just childhood antics," Carter said.

Four of the teens were charged with burglary, grand theft of a fire extinguisher and resisting without violence. The fifth teen was issued a civil citation for a charge of misdemeanor trespassing.

"If he does the civil citation program, he won't have a record," Carter said of the cited teen. "Unfortunately, the other ones have felony charges."