ATLANTA — A 19-year-old has been arrested, accused of damaging “Jurassic World: The Exhibition” in Atlanta, causing hundreds of thousands of dollars in destruction.
Police were first called to the exhibition at Pullman Yards for a burglary. When they got there and spoke to the general manager, they found out that four people had entered the exhibit Sunday night at about 9:30 p.m. and caused $250,00 worth of damage to various parts of the show, WSB reported.
Surveillance footage showed one person sitting on one of the animatronic dinosaurs as he tore the skin from it, The Associated Press reported.
Someone also allegedly took four custom-made dinosaur shirts that were valued at $6,000.
Police said that one person was seen by a security guard on Monday morning at a restaurant on the property and that the guard took a photo of him, according to a police report.
The person in the security guard’s photo matched the person on the security footage from inside the exhibit and was later identified as Acauan Carvalho Van Deusen, 19. Police went to his home and met his father, who asked them if they wanted to talk about what his son did before they brought up the incident, according to the police report. Van Deusen’s father confirmed that the person in the exhibit was his son, who had been “having some issues but has never been diagnosed with anything.”
The father then retrieved Van Deusen, handing him over to police custody.
Officials said that Van Deusen was one of the four people who entered the location on Sunday night. He faces burglary charges.
The other three people who were seen entering the building were not seen on video inside the exhibit or causing property damage, The New York Times reported.
The exhibit had to be temporarily closed because of the damage, but organizers hope to have it reopen on June 7, the AP reported.
“It’s terribly bad inside,” security guard Louis Nolan told WSB.
