ShawneeDispatch.com

Shawnee police are using video they found online to track down suspects who spray-painted graffiti at the Shawnee skate park, fired off an illegal firework and broke into a Lawrence skate park electrical box.

Terry Kegin, crime prevention officer, said he found the videos because he was searching the YouTube Web site for evidence of skateboarders in the parking lot of a new business, Addict Skate Supply, 6405 Quivira Road, which opened July 12. Skateboarding in private property parking lots is illegal in Shawnee if property owners have posted signs saying it isn't allowed, and there had been reports of 40 to 60 skateboarders at the business July 19.

Instead, he found several videos of the criminal activity. In one, suspects spray-painted the Addict Skate Supply logo in what appears to be the Swarner Park skate park; another shows the owner of Addict Skate Supply lighting an M-80 tied to a spray-paint can behind the business.

A final video shows the suspects breaking into the electrical box near the Lawrence skate park to turn the lights on and skate the park after hours. All of the videos included an advertisement for Addict Skate Supply at the beginning or end of the video, and all were posted by the same user and have been removed from the Web site since.

"None of them were really big, no major crimes, just a lot of little things," Kegin said.

Kegin said the police currently planned pursue charges in the case of using illegal explosives.

"It was a big explosive that could easily take off somebody's hand by itself," Kegin said. "When you attach it to an aerosole can, it becomes even more dangerous."

Kim Murphree, a Lawrence police spokeswoman, said a criminal damage report has been filed because an electrical box was damaged near the skate park at Centennial Park, 711 Rockledge Road. Police are still investigating to see if the damage could be linked to the video, she said.

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