BEAUMONT, Texas — Two teenage boys have been charged with burglarizing China Elementary School over the weekend.
Christopher James Standifer, 17, of China and Lukas Allen Waller, 17, of Liberty, were both charged in the burglary and booked into the Jefferson County Correctional Facility on Wednesday according to a news release from the Jefferson County Sheriff's Office.
By Thursday afternoon both had been released on bond.
Deputies were sent to the school on Monday morning, October 24, 2022, after staff members at the school found several open doors along with missing items and some minor damage on the campus according to the news release.
Deputies reviewed surveillance camera video and noticed that on Sunday evening two young men on bicycles were caught on camera riding around the school building the release said.
A short time after the camera caught the two circling the building they broke in to the campus and went through the cafeteria and several classrooms the release said.
The pair stole several pieces of audio equipment from the elementary school, one of which deputies found several miles away in a wooded area with help from school staff, according to the release.
On Wednesday morning, October 26, 2022, deputies found the two bicycles that appeared in the surveillance video and were able to find and speak to the suspects.
Both Standifer and Waller confessed to breaking in and burglarizing the school after detectives spoke to them according to the release.
Jefferson County Precinct One Justice of the Peace Ben Collins issued arrest warrants for the pair.
There is still a large "PA style" speaker missing from the school that detectives are looking for and say may have been abandoned in the area.
They ask that anyone who knows where it might be contact them at 409-835-8411.
This is a developing story. We will update with more if and when we receive more confirmed information.
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