It is so hard raising kids these days. Teens having nice cars, riding around with friends in the car, doing dumb things. When I was a teen back in the late 60's early 70's, we did dumb things also. Some of it was mean, like lifting and turning a guy's VW Bug sideways in his garage, flaming dog poop on a porch, etc. Never really did anything that caused someone to get hurt or cost them money though. We had cars, but were $100 10+ year old cars. Raised a kid that was a teen in the 90's. Did not really do much in the way of police trouble, but I always worried.
It is hard to know what to do in your case, as in charge him or not. Yes, it was HIS decision to do what he did. Was it the first time he did something bad to someone else? Probably not. I do not think that anyone gets caught the first time. But with friends in the car egging you on to do something stupid and mean, a more or less 'good' kid can do something stupid. It might be unkind to get this kid a record for criminal mischief. Restitution seems appropriate.
One hopes he learns from this experience and he ponders which road he wants to travel. Hopefully he regrets what he did as it was wrong, and not just for getting caught.
