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The teens escaped the "secure youth treatment facility" Abraxas Academy located at 1000 Academy Drive, Morgantown, Caernarvon Township, on Sunday, Sept. 17 around 8 p.m., according to area police.
Trooper Beohm said these boys were at the Academy as a holding facility not the long-term location of sentenced youth.
The boys were between the ages of 14 and 17 years of age. Seven of them were from Harrisburg, one from Lehigh County, and the other from Berks County, according to Beohm.
Although the escape was first reported by authorities as being proceeded by a riot, Beohm explained that the nine boys had worked together to overcome two female guards and steal their keys— one of the women was injured in the encounter.
The boys wore white or gray t-shirts, gray shorts, and slides, so they became very cold overnight in the wooden area of the facility following their escape.
A group of four of the juveniles became so cold that they went to a local home to get warm and asked to use the phone so they could turn themselves in.
Those four were recaptured at a home on Oak Grove Road at 5:47 a.m. on Monday, Sept. 18.
The remaining five boys on the lam broke into a car but failed to get it to start. Then they found another vehicle parked outside a trailer on Oak Grove Road and were able to break in and start it. The car was reported as stolen to the police at 6:35 a.m. and local police soon spotted a pick-up truck "acting suspiciously" and pulled them over in the area of Estate and Weaver roads, Beohm said.
Four boys were taken into custody but one fled to a field and sent police on a brief foot chase before state police recaptured him.
All of the boys were recaptured within four miles of the academy.
All nine boys are being interviewed by state police and will be charged with escape, riot, aggravated and simple assault; and the five boys involved in the car break-ins will be charged with criminal mischief and theft, according to Beohm and the Berks County District Attorney's office.
PSP Reading and Caernarvon police worked together to find the teens.
The area school district monitored the situation and canceled classes and school activities due to the search.
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