Tweets tip off former NFL player about teens partying in his home

CNN

(CNN) — About 300 teenagers are realizing they picked the wrong place to throw a wild party after breaking into a former NFL player’s second home and causing more than $20,000 in damage.

Brian Holloway, a former offensive tackle for the New England Patriots, was in Tampa, Florida, over Labor Day weekend when his son told him he was receiving tweets about a party at their home in Stephentown, New York, Holloway said.

“I thought it was a joke,” he told CNN on Thursday.

But Holloway soon realized there was an underage party at his home.

“I’m looking at these tweets and they’re saying, ‘I’m partying with the NFL.’ ‘I’ve never seen so much alcohol in my life’, ‘I can’t wake her up’, ‘Oh we’re being busted. We gotta hide. Get rid of all the drugs.’ ” he said.

Holloway contacted police, but by the time they arrived, the damage was done.

The partygoers broke and stole multiple items, put holes through walls and spray-painted graffiti throughout the home.

“We had learned that they had broken in,” Holloway told CNN’s Brooke Baldwin Thursday.

“They used a couple of different ways to enter the house. They broke and kicked in a couple windows. They came in through one back door. They took a ladder and came in through the window.”

“I blew past furious to what’s important: How do we save these 300 lives that thought this was a good idea?” Holloway said.

He began a campaign to not only hold the teens responsible, but to also address the problem of teen alcohol and drug use.

“So I used the same technology they did to communicate to them and unveil this conversation that was going on,” Holloway said.

He compiled a list of the tweets and photos from the party to identify the teens, and he created a website, www.helpmesave300.com.

“We have 170 tweets with people and their pictures, so we know who was there just by doing security searches with the sheriffs,” Holloway said.

As a result of his work with law enforcement, he says that 200 partygoers have been identified and the last 100 will be in the next few days.

“We knew some of the kids there because they’ve been up to the house before,” Holloway said recalling gatherings he’s hosted at his home before. “They just took it to another level.”

Holloway says parents threatened him after he posted pictures of their children online in an attempt to hold them accountable.

“Parents are upset with me when their child was in my house … taking drugs, using roofies and drinking, and they’re going to be upset with me?” he said in disbelief.

This week, Holloway invited the teens to be accountable and help clean up his home in preparation for a military personnel picnic planned for this weekend that up to 1,000 people are expected to attend.

Fifty volunteers showed up to clean up the home, but only one person who was there actually attended the party.

“Only one student showed up,” Holloway said in disbelief. “Is it a statement about us as a community? If you take our temperature as a community, we get a failing grade. How is there no accountability?”

Yvonne Keefe, spokeswoman for the Rensselaer County Sheriff’s Office, says a “large investigation” is taking place, but no arrests have been made.

“We are working and interviewing, and once we have all the info we will proceed,” Keefe said.

“When will we see a 15-year-old in a casket from drinking and driving?” Holloway asked. “Then we’ll finally ask what could we have done, and that question will haunt us.”