$5K in damage to Fergus dog park by someone doing donuts on grass, OPP say
Driver damaged park and agility equipment
More than $5,000 worth of damage has been done to a dog park in Fergus after a driver did donuts in the park, Ontario Provincial Police say.
On Monday at 9:15 a.m., police were called to the dog park on Glengarry Crescent.
Officers discovered at some point overnight, a vehicle had driven into the dog park and did donuts, or circular skid marks, on the grass. This damaged the park as well as agility equipment.
Photos of the damage were posted to the dog park's Facebook page, where members allege damage was done over two nights.
"Friday night someone entered the park with what appears to be a large vehicle and raced around the park doing donuts in the snow and running over one of our honeysuckle bushes," the group said on Facebook.
"The vandals returned [Sunday] night and completely destroyed the tunnel which is part of our agility area, along with several small trees we planted last spring."
'It was very upsetting'
Tara Pulchinski is one of the volunteers who has helped fundraise for the items in the park, like the agility equipment, benches and trees.
She arrived Saturday morning to see a honeysuckle bush flattened.
"It was very upsetting when I got there on Saturday morning and saw the donuts and I saw the bush run over like that. It's very confusing as this is a community park that so many people come and enjoy," she said.
"We're just a small group of volunteers that that we worked so hard to keep it really nice for everybody. So it was very heartbreaking and disappointing to see that someone would take a vehicle and just for fun drive around and whip around on donuts in our park."
She says the group is working on new fundraising efforts to rebuild the items that were destroyed. One particular piece was a tunnel the dogs loved to run through and it was hugely popular, she says.
The group had raised money to plan new oak trees in the park this spring to offer some shade, but she says that money may need to be redirected.
Police are asking any residents in the area who have video surveillance to review their recordings and report any suspicious activity.
Anyone with information is asked to contact OPP at 1-888-310-1122 or Crime Stoppers at 1-800-222-8477.
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