Two Teens Arrested For Water Park Break-in
On hot summer days, it’s not uncommon to find teenagers enjoying themselves at local water parks — during normal business hours. Much less common are stories of teens anxious to cool down on the slides in the middle of the night.
Farren Marie Lane and Logan Brooke Larrimore, 18, were handcuffed and charged on July 5th with third degree burglary after police officers confiscated Snapchat videos of the teens trespassing at Myrtle Waves Water Park in the early morning hours, around 4am. The park is the largest of its kind in South Carolina sitting on 20 acres with more than 30 slides.
Staff at Myrtle Waves reported that a burglary had taken place over the weekend, and when police began to investigate and look into leads, an unidentified woman presented the officers with the incriminating videos. From there, they were able to ID the accounts and pull the teenagers’ information, including their addresses and phone numbers, from their Department of Motor Vehicle records.
The Snapchat videos “clearly depict the offenders inside of the [park] after hours,” according to the police report. Had the two teens not paused to inform their social media friends of their whereabouts, it’s unclear whether they would have been discovered.
The park’s site clearly states “participation on some rides may be restricted due to height, size and physical condition requirements as set forth by the park and ride manufacturer”. Without staff onsite, the two women put themselves in danger, braving the slides in the dark.
Presented with the evidence, a statement was taken from Larrimore, who indicated she and her friend had indeed jumped the fence and “we went down all the slides.” They also consumed $8 worth of Italian ice without paying.
The two could have taken notes from the group of BMX bikers who jumped the fence of a Long Island, New York, water park after hours at around 6am Thanksgiving morning last year in order to take turns on the slides. Their adventure was filmed on a GoPro video, which went viral. On the video, the bikers were riding down the slides and doing tricks. Once the footage hit Youtube, it quickly racked up 3.8 million views.
“If we don’t get arrested, hopefully we don’t get arrested, we tried to do it last year on New Year’s but it was raining out in the morning,” said Billy Perry of West Islip in the video. “It’s Thanksgiving. so we’re hoping there will be no one there. It’s super early in the morning.”
Splish Splash park managers reported some of the slides were damaged by the bike riding, and costly to repair. “There was damage to the attractions. We don’t know the extent of that damage yet but they will all need to be re-inspected,” said park manager Mike Bengtson. “We just had some slides that we re-coated this year which was very expensive for us.”
Four men, ages 19 to 34, including Perry, were eventually arrested and charged with criminal trespassing. Luckily for law enforcement, it seems like everyone wants to document their crimes on social media nowadays.
Sources:
2 teen girls arrested after posting Snapchat videos showing them trespassing in water park
Snapchat videos showed teen girls trespassing at SC water park, report says
Myrtle Waves Water Park Website
Police arrest 4 after video surfaces of BMX riders going down slides at Long Island water park
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