DOUGLAS COUNTY, Colo. (KDVR) — Local parents are trying to stop a teen who’s known on social media for throwing parties at homes where parents are out of town.
Andrew Brodie and his wife were backcountry skiing Saturday when notifications from their home surveillance cameras started popping up on their phone.
“As we summited the mountain, our Ring doorbell went off,” Brodie said. “All of a sudden there’s a kid climbing up my ladder trying to break into my house.”
Teens try to break into locked home
Video shows the Brodies’ daughter, her friend and a third teen he didn’t recognize trying to get into their locked home. Brodie called Douglas County Sheriff’s deputies to stop the break-in attempt.
“When the police arrived, they were going to smash a window with a cinder block,” he said. “They broke a key and my key lock. They melted a plastic spoon to try to forge a fake key.”
Brodie learned the third teen found on his property is a young man named “Mike” who posts social media videos and details about massive house parties in the area.
“People need to know about it. This is not isolated,” Brodie said. “It’s already happened to other people, and it’s not just the houses. It’s the teenage girls that he’s luring with drugs and alcohol and the downstream side effects of that.”
Who’s behind the house party videos?
The FOX31 Problem Solvers spoke to “Mike,” who also goes by “Bando” on social media. He said there’s no alcohol at his parties and, as of August, he’s stopped throwing house parties to focus on promoting in an official capacity.
“I don’t throw parties anymore. I’m tired of that,” he said. “The cops come, people run. That’s pretty much all cops really do. They just show up at the door. I’m like, ‘Hey, there’s a party. You guys don’t have a warrant.’ They can’t really do anything lawfully.”
The Douglas County Sheriff’s Office shared the following information about why charges couldn’t be pursued at the Brodies’ home on Saturday.
“The daughter does live there and did give verbal permission for the other two to be there. It certainly doesn’t make it right, but criminally, it is hard to charge someone who believed they had permission to be there,” the Sheriff’s Office said in a statement.
“As far as the party situation, we always encourage parents to have a frank conversation with their children if they are leaving and entrusting their children to be good while they are away. If we are called to a party and we can establish that illegal activities are occurring, like an underage party, we can address criminal charges that way,” the statement continued.
“Parents may want to let a few neighbors know they are leaving and what they can expect to see or not see, like a child that is allowed to be at the house while they are gone, or what they should expect not to see like multiple people at the house or even a big party,” the Sheriff’s Office added. “They should also let their children know that they have let someone know to call the police if there are signs of people at the house without permission.”
