Two teenagers who left a juvenile service facility near Hagerstown after obtaining a pass to go home for the weekend, were arrested on robbery charges hours after their release.
The Maryland Department of Juvenile Services is investigating after one of its contracted facilities released the 14-year-olds to take an unsupervised bus trip across the state.
The juveniles left Cedar Ridge, a facility for boys near Hagerstown, and boarded a Trailways bus Friday to get home to Salisbury, authorities say. Several hours after arriving, they were arrested in connection with the robbery of a cabdriver in Salisbury.
Donald W. DeVore, secretary of the Department of Juvenile Services, said he is unaware of unsupervised releases and bus rides.
"I am aware that some residents, when they get close to the completion [of] the treatment, make home visits," he said. "I was not aware that anyone sends them by bus. Normally, they're picked up by the parent."
On Friday, the teenagers arrived in Salisbury, where their parents met them at the bus station, said Cpl. Kevin Beauchamp of the Maryland State Police.
The teenagers had been in Salisbury for about two hours when the robbery occurred, police said.
On Friday about 4 p.m., a cabdriver picked up two teenagers and drove them to their requested destination in the 1900 block of Pine Way in Salisbury. Reached by phone yesterday, the driver, who asked that his name not be used, said that when he pulled out his wallet to put the fare in it, the teenagers snatched the wallet and fled.
The first suspect was arrested in a rear parking lot at WBOC-TV. About 20 officers -- deputies from the Wicomico County Sheriff's Office and state troopers -- took part in the search for the second suspect, who was found about an hour later, authorities said. The stolen money was recovered.
The suspects were charged with robbery, theft and conspiracy to commit robbery, police said. They were being held at the Lower Eastern Shore Children's Center late yesterday.
In February, the two teenagers had been moved from that Eastern Shore facility to Cedar Ridge, authorities said. The youths had been sent under court order to the facility, DeVore said.
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