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Family has $6,000 worth of items stolen after high school party

Posted at 10:48 PM, Feb 27, 2017
and last updated 2017-02-28 11:46:46-05

SALT LAKE CITY -- A Utah family had around $6,000 worth of items stolen after their son had a house party at the end of February.

Chris and Marilyn Colgan were on a trip to Cuba  when their son Rob Colgan had a high school party of over 50 kids, some of which, the family believes had stolen $6,000 worth of items, including an Amazon echo, a laptop, a tablet, jewelry, $250 in cash, and road bike.

According to Rob, he initially only invited no more than ten different friends while his parents were out of town.

"One of my friends asked if he could invite this one kid over from Olympus and I was like 'yeah what's one more kid? Sure, go for it.' And I'm assuming that kid came over and heard there were no parents and put the word out and as more people came, the word spread even more," Rob said.

Eventually, Rob got everyone out, but in the days ahead, the Colgans began realizing the damage went beyond making a mess.

"This is more than just mischief. This is criminal," Marilyn said.

To add insult to injury, the Colgans realized one of their bedrooms had been vandalized.

It turns out, the Colgans aren't the only victims.

About a year ago, Greg Jones' 16-year-old daughter had a few friends over. The word quickly spread and all of a sudden the house was packed, Jones said, and had thousands of dollars worth of items stolen including a laptop and jewelry. He blames social media.

"When I was 16 my judgment could only get me in so much trouble. Now at 16, with social media and more people around and amplification, 16-year-old judgment gets you into bigger trouble," Jones said.

The Colgans have filed a police report with the Salt Lake City Police Department.

According to the Colgans, they have insurance but they're making Rob pay the deductible.

Rob said he's going to get two jobs over the summer to pay it off.