Pair of 14-year-olds charged with vandalism, burglary at Dowling College, Suffolk police say

A pair of teenagers were arrested Wednesday after they were caught stealing property and writing graffiti on the walls on the abandoned Dowling College campus in Oakdale, Suffolk County police said.

The 14-year-olds, who were not identified because of their age, were charged with third-degree burglary and making graffiti. They were released to a parent and issued a Family Court appearance ticket.

Suffolk officers responded to a 911 call at 4:25 p.m. Wednesday, reported by a nearby neighborhood watch member, about youths vandalizing a building, police said.

The suspects, who left the scene before police arrived, were located a short distance from the campus in front of a business on Montauk Highway and placed under arrest, authorities said.

A backpack containing spray paint and unidentified items from the burglary was recovered, police said.

The graffiti was written on the side of Dowling's Racanelli Center while the teens entered through the former Fortunoff building and removed property, police said.

It was not immediately clear what was spray-painted or the cost of removing the graffiti.

Neighbors of the vacant college campus, which closed in 2016, have said that break-ins, vandalism and other incidents continue to be a weekly or even daily nuisance despite the efforts of police and a neighborhood watch group to deter trespassers.

Islip Town officials and Oakdale residents have complained that the site's current owner, Delaware-based Mercury International, a subsidiary of Beijing investment firm China Orient Asset Management Co. Ltd., has failed to provide adequate security since buying the 25-acre campus in 2017 for $26.1 million at a bankruptcy auction.

Mercury had initially proposed developing the site as an educational facility, but its current plans for the property are unknown.

The campus along the Connetquot River was once part of the Idle Hour estate owned by railroad heir William K. Vanderbilt. The Vanderbilt family used the estate and its early 20th-century mansion in the summer. A real estate brochure from about 1923 when the family decided to sell the estate said it included some 900 acres and hundreds of buildings and stables.

Most of the former estate's land now is occupied by the residential neighborhood still called Idle Hour.

Dowling College, which was founded in the 1960s, closed after declaring bankruptcy when it could not pay off more than $50 million in debt from failed expansion projects. The private school had seen its enrollment plummet from 4,500 in 2009 to fewer than 2,500 in 2015.

With Matthew Chayes

By Robert Brodsky

robert.brodsky@newsday.com@BrodskyRobert

Robert Brodsky is a breaking news reporter who has worked at Newsday since 2011. He is a Queens College and American University alum.