On Friday February 6, 2008 at approximately 2 am, Norton Police received a telephone call from a resident of West Main Street, reporting a suspicious vehicle with three occupants was in the area of Norton High School.
Ptlm. Mahoney, Ptlm. Winters and Ptlm. Turcotte checked the area, but did not locate a vehicle. The witness was able to provide the responding officers with a registration number of the vehicle.
A short time later, officers received two additional telephone calls from subjects reporting seeing three youths on foot in the area of the Yelle School. This is the same area that the buses for the Norton Public Schools are parked overnight. The area checked negative, but officers continued their investigation.
At approximately 6:30 am, Police received a telephone call from Bloom Bus Company, the company who owns the buses. The company reported a large amount of vandalism to numerous buses in the lot. The vandalism included cut electrical wires, cut wires to the stop signs and headlights and damage to the bus radios.
Officials from Bloom Bus were still calculating the monetary totals of the losses. Schools were not affected by this and started on time.
Norton Police Detectives questioned the operator of the vehicle that was observed earlier in the morning in the area. Their subsequent investigation resulted in the arrest of:
Michael Whelan, age 18 of 12 Pratt Street, Mansfield MA Whelan is a student at Norton High School.
Whelan was charged with Malicious Destruction of Property over $250.00 Whelan was transported to Attleboro District Court for arraignment.
The investigation is on going and additional charges are expected.
The incident remains under investigation by Det. Lt. Thomas Petersen, Det. Stephen Desfosses and Ptlm. Jeffrey Zaccardi.
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