UPDATE: Teen confesses to Grimm office vandalism

September 26, 2012 Brooklyn Eagle Staff

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Here’s an update on a story reported earlier by the Brooklyn Daily Eagle: a teenager has confessed to being the vandal who broke the windows at U.S. Rep. Michael Grimm’s (R-Bay Ridge-Staten Island) campaign headquarters on Staten Island over the weekend, according to the Associated Press.

The teen, an eighth grader, told police he vandalized the office at 2582 Hylan Boulevard, the AP reported on Sept. 25.

The suspect, whose name was withheld by police because of his age, will be charged with criminal mischief as a juvenile, the AP reported.

Grimm, who is running for re-election in the 11^th Congressional District, a seat that covers Bay Ridge and Staten Island, maintains campaign offices on both sides of the Verrazano Narrows Bridge. He shares a Brooklyn campaign office with state Sen. Marty Golden (R-Bay Ridge) and Assemblywoman Nicole Malliotakis (R-Bay Ridge-Staten Island) on Third Avenue and 81^st Street.

The vandalism was discovered by campaign staffers on Sept. 23. Two large chunks of cement and smaller rocks had been thrown through the windows, according to Grimm, who said the vandals broke three windows.

The vandals also entered the office and corrupted the computer files, erasing the hard-drive of the campaign computer server, which contained confidential campaign files and polling data, Grimm said.

Police are still investigating the matter of the computer hard drive, the AP reported.

Nathan Smith, campaign spokesman for Mark Murphy, Grimm’s Democratic opponent, issued a statement in the wake of the teen’s arrest. “We commend the young man for coming forward. The wild accusations and apparently totally false conspiracy theories of the last 48 hours have made this bizarre situation a sad spectacle,” Smith stated.