Golf Course Vandalism Investigated As Possible Hate Crime

I’m not sure why anyone feels the need to ruin someone else’s property. And, you know they know its not right–especially when they do it with no one around. Stupid cowards.

The latest course vandalism occurred in Maine at Monmouth golf course. What’s worse (besides the damage to several greens) was the swastika carved into the #1 green. Centralmaine.com has the ugly details.

“This is a business that thrives on having a beautiful piece of property,” Monmouth Police Department Patrolman Michael Pershall said. “It’s pretty sad.”

Pershall said the vandalism, which is being investigated as felony criminal mischief, likely occurred sometime between 9:30 p.m. Sunday and 4 a.m. Monday. He estimates the damage to the course to be between $2,000 and $3,000, not including any loss of business to the course.

There was a small American flag found at the scene near the swastika that probably fell off the golf cart, which did not belong to the golf course, Pershall said.

The case will be turned over to the Attorney General’s office as a potential hate crime because of the presence of the swastika. The Sylvester family isn’t Jewish, Bill Sylvester said, and he said he has no idea why someone would draw that on the green.

“It’s just insult to injury,” Bill Sylvester said. “There’s no place anywhere for something like that.”

In addition to driving across several greens and knocking down some posts used to mark the cart paths, Pershall said the vandals were jumping the golf cart into multiple sand traps. He was able to see where the rear of the cart dragged along the ground, but he wasn’t able to match it to any golf cart during his initial investigation.

Stupid is as stupid does.