What would you have done if they said no?
Depends. I'd need more info. C'mon man, if you were a 14 year old out getting into trouble would you tell a cop "no" when he caught you messing up? Like I said, these weren't hardened criminals.
Disagree; the broken window police are wrong. While they're writing up some poor shmo for a cracked window, a store is robbed, baby kidnapped, teenager raped, etc, etc, etc. Bad use of time.
Broken window doesn't mean the store owner's window is busted. It means if you turn a blind eye to kids breaking windows they grow up to do a lot worse. Small crimes turn into big ones kinda thing.