Youths Caught Underage Drinking and Trespassing at Joseph Ferderbar Elementary

Four youths were caught by police trespassing and underage drinking on and grounds just after midnight Wednesday, July 13.

Police responded to Joseph Ferderbar on a report of four subjects trespassing and hanging out by the pool at Ferderbar, and possibility drinking and swimming in the pool.

Upon arrival, Officer Brian Walter observed two males and two females by the playground at Ferderbar. They began walking towards the rear of Poquessing on the grass when they saw police arrive.

Walter went around the rear of Poquessing and drove up onto the grass and toward the subjects; when they saw Walter, all four youths took off running back toward Heights Lane. Walter followed them as far as the fence at the playground and they ran across the street onto Hampton Drive and cut in between the first two houses.

Walter advised Sergeant Raymond Branden, who was in the area, and they both checked the area for the subjects. Walter found a one of the males, Michael Franzen, 20 of Trevose, laying under a bush with a black school bag next to him in between the two houses and Walter told him to come out.

Franzen told Walter he didn't know where the other teens were because they kept running. Walter placed Franzen in the rear of his patrol car and continued to look for the other subjects. The subjects could not be found in the area.

While speaking with Franzen, Walter reported that he told him the names of the other teens he was with, but was unsure of where they were at the time. Walter reported that he detected the odor of alcohol on Franzen and recovered a Hurricane 40-ounce in Franzen's back pack. Franzen was given a preliminary breath test, which resulted in .10 percent.

Walter looked up the names of the other subjects, found where one lived and Corporal Richard Shaffer went there to speak with her father, who was waiting for his daughter to come home. A few minutes later, a car pulled up to the house with the three subjects in it.

According to the police report, the teens were not telling the truth up front when asked if they were drinking. They said they were just hanging out at the school and thought they would get in trouble so they began to walk off when they saw police, but got scared and ran from police.

Walter gave all three, ages 16, 16 and 17 years old, preliminary breath tests, which all resulted in .09 percent. They finally said they had been drinking Four Loko. Police were able to recover two of them on school property.

Franzen and the three others were advised that they would cited for underage drinking and trespassing.