16-year-old linked to 121 car break-ins in 1 night released after 5 hours in custody. Police chief decries 'broken system.'

A Maryland police chief decried what he called a "broken system" after a 16-year-old male arrested in connection with 121 car break-ins in one night earlier this month was released after just five hours in custody.

Police in Laurel said the male and two other teens smashed car windows and stole items from 54 cars in Laurel and 67 more in Prince George's, Anne Arundel, and Howard Counties on the night of May 4, WRC-TV reported.

'I had one woman stop me and mention to me that this is the third time this has happened to her car. And because the deductible was so high, she had to make adjustments in her home, including the purchase of food.'

Police arrested the 16-year-old on Wednesday morning, the station said, but just five hours later, police were forced to release him.

"He was released back into the community, back into the environment that allowed him to be out roaming the streets in all of these counties late at night and in the early morning," Laurel Police Chief Russ Hamill told WRC.

The State's Attorney's Office supported detectives' intention to hold the teen, but the Department of Juvenile Services shot that down, saying the young suspect didn't have a prior record, and the crimes weren't violent, Hamill added to the station.

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"We don't do this lightly. We don't ask for young people to be held on a whim. We do so to help protect the community and them," the chief also told WRC. "I have little hope there will be further accountability for him due to this broken system."

Blaze News on Friday morning asked a Department of Juvenile Services spokesperson if the agency had any comment on Hamill's "broken system" declaration, but the spokesperson told Blaze News that "laws in place preclude our ability to talk about individual cases at all."

Hamill told WRC that video from May 4 shows two suspects walk from car to car in a parking lot and use flashlights to search inside and that a third suspect is seen nearby driving a stolen car in case they need to make a getaway.

"They were just simply going through neighborhoods and targets of opportunity, breaking into cars," Hamill added to the station. "If there was something in there, they'd steal. If there was nothing in there, they'd move to another car."

More from WRC:

Investigators found the keys to the stolen car and keys to 25 other cars during a search warrant at the 16-year-old suspect's home in Beltsville, police said. They also found several stolen items, police said.

Hamill said although some might consider car break-ins a lower-level crime, they greatly affect the victims, who often have to pay hundreds of dollars on their insurance deductibles and miss work because they don't have a useable car.

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"I had one woman stop me and mention to me that this is the third time this has happened to her car," Hamill told the station. "And because the deductible was so high, she had to make adjustments in her home, including the purchase of food."

Laurel police on Friday morning told Blaze News that the two other juvenile suspects wanted in connection with the car break-ins were arrested for unrelated crimes in other jurisdictions.

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