Montgomery County Sheriff's Deputies charge teens with spray painting graffiti

MONTGOMERY COUNTY — The Montgomery County Sheriff’s Office Tuesday arrested two teenage boys and charged them with spray painting “Big Boys 4 Life” and the tag sign “BB4L” at the historic Fort Klock Homestead and other locations in St. Johnsville.

Sheriff Jeff Smith said his deputies arrested a 16-year-old male juvenile and a 15-year-old male juvenile, both from Western Montgomery County and charged them both with fourth-degree criminal mischief. Their names will not be released to the public due to the state’s Raise the Age reform.

Smith said sheriffs were able to identify the two teens thanks to police work done by the Fort Plain Police Department.

“It was a break in their case that helped us catch ours,” Smith said. “These arrests are another example of the importance of agencies working together and sharing information.”

The Fort Plain Police Department has been investigating instances of “BB4L” graffiti spray painted at six different locations, including: the stairs of the Fort Plain Jr./Sr. High School, structures at Little League Park on Herkimer Street, two privately owned trailers on Willett Street, a Canal Street telephone pole, the bike trail underpass, and in the vicinity of the Beech-Nut factory building.

Fort Plain Police Chief Ryan Austin said he is certain the two teens charged by the sheriff’s office are connected to his investigation.

“The charge is what it is, but they’re charged as juveniles, unfortunately,” Austin said. “With some of these juveniles, I don’t know if they have criminal histories or if they don’t, but I know there are more arrests coming from our department as well.”

Austin said the future arrests will be of additional people police believe to have been involved in the multiple instances of graffiti.

Smith said the juveniles did not reveal the origin of the “Big Boys 4 Life” name during the sheriff’s interviews of the two.

The BB4L acronym has its own hashtag on the social media website instagram.com, but that may be connected to the urbandictionary.com meaning, which is “Bad Boys for Life.”

Both juveniles were issued an appearance ticket to report to the Montgomery County Probation Department on Sept. 14.