Partygoers Vandalize Robert Frost's Home

(CBS/AP)  A former home of poet Robert Frost in the U.S. state of Vermont has been vandalized, with intruders destroying dozens of items and setting fire to furniture in what police say was an underage drinking party.

Homer Noble Farm, a former Frost residence that's now a historic landmark, was ransacked late Friday night during a party attended by up to 50 people, Sgt. Lee Hodsden said Monday.

The intruders broke a window to get into the two-story wood frame building - a furnished residence open in the summer - before destroying tables and chairs, pictures, windows, light fixtures and dishes. Wicker furniture and dressers were smashed and thrown into a fireplace and burned, apparently to provide heat in the unheated building, he said.

Empty beer bottles and cans, plastic cups and cellophane apparently used to hold marijuana were also found, according to Hodsden. The vandals vomited in the living room and discharged two fire extinguishers inside the building.

Police found empty alcohol containers and vomit on the floor, reports CBS News affiliate WCAX-TV.

Robert Frost's farm is a historic site owned and maintained by Middlebury College.

No arrests have been made, Hodsden said, adding that they have tracked down some partygoers and believe they are minors.

The damage was discovered Saturday by a hiker who notified police at Middlebury College, which maintains the site. The cabin's caretaker was last there at 10 a.m. Friday, police said.

Frost, a celebrated New England poet known for such verse as "The Road Not Taken" and "The Gift Outright," died in 1963. He summered at the home from 1939 to 1963.


© MVII, CBS Interactive Inc. All Rights Reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed. The Associated Press contributed to this report

[michellem99-2009]

crzmeat years ago my mother she left the family house unlocked if she went to store and this was a small town. I was visiting for holidays. I asked for the key to lock the door. I told her *yer dumb as yer need to lock yer door. I don''t care if yer know the whole town. Lock it.* She is in senior housing and I bet her door is locked.
There are rich folks there. There are poor ones like my people. Ihave heard that line *my child would not do that*. Yer wrong. When they get with their mates ye have no idea what he/she will do. Yer raise them right if ye raise them at all. Most don''t.

[gmond]

Kids have a party and wind up trashing the place. That''s really newsworthy.

[Krazcarl]

kevzgl...Don''t blame everthing on someone else sometimes you have to show backbone and take respondsibty, it''s a cop out to blame your failures on others. I dought any of these parents encouraged this behavior they were drunk high and raised cane.

[kevzgrl]

To SgtRDS: Unfortunately, in today''s society, the parents of these "children" who committed this act will protest, "MY child wouldn''t do anything like THAT" and hire expensive lawyers to get them off with no or minimal punishment, and what lesson have the "children" learned? They will get a gentle pat on the hand and a "We know you didn''t MEAN to cause any harm. Please don''t do it again" and what lesson will the little idiots have learned??? Read the posts by "jh6379" - that would have been a SWEET LITTLE PARTY? Young people today, hearing about this, think it''s funny that their peers did something this "sweet" and "sick". There is a disconnect of a horrible sort in our youth - they don''t see something like this as being wrong at all, and it started at home when they were children, with the parents not giving them the guidance and attention and DISCIPLINE they need. Unfortunately, these kids WON''T get a public whipping or other punishment - it will be a pat on the hand and "Don''t do it again".....

[Krazcarl]

You folks have to realize unless these homes are elebarate most leave them unlocked better than having the door kicked in you don''t leave a house by the lake unattened for 10 or 11 month out of the year and expect no one will bother anything. I don''t expect that at my house and I seldom leave. Most of these folks are rich or trying to look that way. In New England when the weather gets cold half the houses are unoccuipied put some anti-freeze in the camode shut of the water till next summer. This was not home invasion it was just plainly stupid.

[sgtrds]

This is one of those cases where when they catch all the smart as*sed little SOB''s that did it they get some sort of public humiliation, like a good whipping in a public square.

[michellem99-2009]

I am a Mainer. I used to walk by the Longfellows childhood home in Portland Me alot as I lived in Portland in the 70s. I loved it as is is history . Jennmaine I hope yer kids have a love for yer lessons and will live them. I was taught it is not yers and ye got no business pulling that. We were taught to leave the public loo cleaner than ye found it. How we live saids how we were raised. By their selfishness robs others the enjoyment of this land mark..There is no need for this behaviour..none.

[Krazcarl]

mudrose kids were pulling *** when I was kid and were talking the 70''s this is not knew was hoping the next generation would be smarter...I''m getting old..

[actiscenei]

Once police catch these a*******, as punishment each kid should stay in the local jail until they can recite a dozen or so of Frost''s best-loved poems (most appropriately "The Road Not Taken")!

[mudrose-2009]

Today''s youth - ignorant, arrogant and all with a sense of entitlement. Someone should throw up in their mouths.