What do you do if you're a teenager and your parents leave town on holiday? An increasingly popular response would appear to be: organise a massive party with your mates, drink till you're practically unconscious and cause £10,000 of damage, writes James Orr.
This is exactly what one 16-year-old from Melbourne did when his parents were foolish enough to leave him home alone. His drunken binge attracted some 500 marauding adolescents and needed 30 police officers, a force helicopter and a police dog squad to break up.
But was he sorry? Hell no. Instead the hungover Aussie told reporters he was refusing to answer calls from his parents and didn't intend to be anywhere near the scene of the crime when the fuming pair returned home. Always the perfect plan.
Yet it's not just Aussie teenagers that can drink it seems, not by a long shot. In fact tales of youngsters turning their parents' homes upside down during unofficial parties seem to be on the up.
Last summer one 14-year-old Brit gave the Australians a run for their money and caused £15,000 of damage after holding a party at her parent's home for just 100 youngsters. Good to see the Poms holding their own.
Have MySpace, Bebo and the like made such events more likely as the word spreads quicker? Is this a new phenomenon? Or have we just started to notice more often?
