Arrests in Waller Elementary Burglary

The Bay County Sheriff’s Office arrested three juveniles and an adult in connection with a burglary at Waller Elementary over the holiday weekend. The arrests took place within five hours from the time the BCSO received the call about the burglary.

Just
before 8:00AM this morning, the BCSO was contacted by teachers at Waller
Elementary when they discovered a building on campus that housed six classrooms
had been broken into and all the classrooms trashed. School supplies and the
contents of the desks had been thrown on the floor, TVs and desktop computers
had been broken and three tablets had been stolen. Snacks for the kindergarten
and first grade students that attend Waller in those classrooms were stolen and
containers of drinks had been sprayed inside the classrooms leaving a sticky
syrupy residue on the ransacked supplies and walls.

The
BCSO Criminal Investigations Division, the North End Crime Prevention Office Deputy,
and the Crime Scene Unit responded to the scene. Investigators began speaking
to residents that live around the school and developed several possible
suspects. Contact was made with Berin Register, age 14, Tyler Catalano, age 17,
and Megan Catalano, age 19, all of Happyville Road. Happyville Road is about a
mile from Waller Elementary School.

Interviews
were conducted and investigators believe that Register, Catalano, and a third
juvenile Zachary Kuehn, age 13, from Panama City Beach, burglarized the
building on the Waller campus Saturday night and Sunday night over the Labor
Day weekend. On Saturday night the three stole the three tablets. Catalano gave
one of them to his sister, Megan Catalano, age 19, who admitted knowing the tablet
was stolen when her brother gave it to her. On Sunday night the three juveniles
entered the building again and ransacked the six classrooms.

Berin Register, Tyler Catalano, and Zachary Kuehn were arrested and charged with two counts of Burglary of a Structure, Grand Theft, and Criminal Mischief more than $1000. Megan Catalano was charged with Petit Theft.

Two
of the three stolen tablets have been recovered.

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Prepared
by R. Corley

Information
by Inv. J. Turner

Approved
by Sheriff T. Ford