Zoo trespasser: Dozens broke-in first

ALBUQUERQUE (KRQE) - One of the college kids who broke into the zoo and posted pictures of their adventure on Facebook claims other people have done it too.

After some investigation, it was discovered taht some of those on June's "late night safari" have gotten into more trouble since then.

All 12 are taking plea deals and expect to have to serve their community service at the zoo. The college students got up close and personal with giraffes, sea lions, and rhinos in June.

On Tuesday, trespassing charges were filed.

“One night we were just sitting around a bunch of friends and they were talking about how they did it already," said Chance Paroz, one of the accused trespassers. "So, we figured 'why not, let's go, we can take a couple of pictures.'”

He said at least three other groups have taken midnight safaris at the zoo. But when they were busted, Paroz said, “I was thinking it might be a big deal. People thought 'oh, this is just a bunch of criminals trying to break into the zoo and hurt the animals,' but that totally wasn't the case.”

Most of the kids haven't been in trouble with the law before this, but, a search of online court records show two of them have been in handcuffs since the break-in. Billy Montgomery was popped again for late-night trespassing somewhere else just two weeks ago and Jeffrey Brock was hauled in for DWI on Saturday.

As far as the zoo stunt, Paroz said, “It was a dumb decision, but you learn from your mistakes.”

Zoo officials said they have made security improvements to make sure this doesn't happens again, but they won't say what they've done.

A city spokesman said it would be very hard to prosecute the other groups of people who broke into the zoo before this, because they don't have any evidence against them.