"There's nothing more fun," said Johnson, 20. "There's nowhere around here (legal), but we find places here and there. We got places around here to ride where we don't hurt anything or tear down anything."
Law enforcement and park officials in the Philadelphia area, however, say the exploding popularity of ATVs is causing them serious problems because owners of the three- and four-wheel vehicles usually end up driving them on private property without the owner's consent or on public parks, golf courses and school property.
"They are a pain in the neck," said Capt. Norman Stoner of the Bristol Township Police Department. "There is just no authorized place to use them . . . so kids either use them on the streets or get into the parks and annoy people and tear up grass and shrubs.
"You can use your own property if you own a farm, but you don't find farms in urban areas down here. We sometimes see 8- and 10-year-olds on them. Generous Mom and Dad at Christmas buy them for their kids and show them how to operate them and turn them loose."
Last month the Bensalem Township Police Department, which had several complaints from a farmer who said he lost $5,000 worth of crops to ATVs, created what Capt. Ronald Traenkle called a "mini-sting operation" to catch the riders.
Traenkle said the department, realizing that its police cars could not catch the ATVs, borrowed three of the vehicles from the farmer, put officers on them in civilian clothes and staked out the farmer's field. They arrested 15 ATV riders, ranging in age from 18 to 23, and charged them with defiant trespass and with driving unregistered vehicles.
"There is no municipality around here that doesn't have a problem" with ATVs, Traenkle said. "They are a worthless piece of junk."
