Whitehead Road Elementary School students will have to stand while waiting for the bus after a University student and an accomplice were accused of stealing a school bench Sunday night, according to police.

In an attempt to create a backyard skate park, student Jeffery George Benson and Vinson Jamel Goldwire were arrested on felony charges and taken to the Athens-Clarke County jail.

The two were accused of taking benches and support pillars from Whitehead Elementary school for what they said was to add to their collection of skate park materials on Sunday night.

“My buddy saw it the day before and called, at around 10, to go get it,” Goldwire said in a phone interview Tuesday.

The two were spotted in action by resident April Hill, who immediately called the police.

By the time the officer arrived at the school, the offenders and the bench were gone.

“It wasn’t hard [to steal the bench]. It only took five to seven minutes,” Goldwire said.

The bench was attached to a cement base with six bolts.

Goldwire said the bench, which is typically used by elementary students waiting for the bus, was perfect for skateboarding tricks he and Benson wanted to do.

“We weren’t doing anything too bad,” Goldwire said. “It was like $150 for the bench. We could have easily reassembled it if we knew how and they let us.”

The two were spotted by another officer. Once apprehended, Benson and Goldwire were arrested and charged with interfering with government property, theft by taking, possession of tools for the commission of a crime and a tag light violation.

“It looked pretty sketchy because of all the stuff in [Benson's] car,” Goldwire said. “We had a wheelbarrow, a drill and stuff like that. We really only needed a wrench to get the bench.”

He said the officers thought the tools were used in the commission of the crime. Benson and Goldwire also were given criminal trespass warnings. The two are forbidden from entering school grounds for five years.

“The whole time we were trying to laugh it off because it was for skateboarding,” Goldwire said. “It was not like we were breaking a window trying to get laptops.”

Benson declined to comment, and Hill could not be reached Tuesday night.

Benson is the son of P. George Benson, the former dean of the Terry College of Business from 1998 to 2007. P. George Benson now serves as the president of College of Charleston in South Carolina.