This is a printer-friendly version of an article from Zip06.com.
08/06/2018 12:00 AMWhen staff showed up for work at the Surf Club on Saturday, Aug. 4, the building was not as it had been left the night before. Sometime between close on Friday evening and staff showing up on Saturday morning, vandals broke in and trashed the building.
Beach & Rec Director Scot Erskine said his staff closed up on Aug 3 by about 11 p.m. and secured the building. When the first employee arrived at 8 a.m. on Aug. 4, she quickly noticed a lot of damage.
“She heard water running, which in fact was the ladies room sinks that had been turned on,” he said. “She started looking around and then saw the damage to the tent and the damage to the kitchen.”
Vandals blocked the sinks and toilets and left the water running, opened the staff refrigerator and took whatever food was inside and threw it across the kitchen floor, turned over trash, and did a fair amount of damage outside as well.
The vandals sliced up the new tent on the Surf Club patio. That tent cost the town thousands of dollars and had only been in place for about six weeks.
“They took the lighting off their hangers and pilled them up all along the seawall along with the two propane tanks, the high chairs, they flipped some tables over that were chained, and they pulled [the concession stand] menus off the side of the building that he has on the left and right,” said Erskine. “Then they defecated on [the stand’s] service counter on the outside.”
Erskine said it looks as though the vandals got in through the kitchen door, although he’s not sure how since the door was secured. He said staff worked as fast as possible to get the whole place cleaned up.
“We had our maintenance crew in and the summer staff, so it was all cleaned up because we had a rental that afternoon so it had to be straightened out prior to that,” he said. “They all worked really well together, worked hard with the police trying to answer questions, and we checked out all of the other buildings during the torrential rain.”
The suspects were caught on surveillance cameras at the Surf Club. Madison Police Captain Joe Race said the department is looking for two young men who left the scene on a scooter.
“Right now we are processing the video to get some good stills and then we will get that out,” he said. “…This is the nonsense. This kind of stuff is just uncalled for. I don’t know what you possibly could be thinking.”
First Selectman Tom Banisch said with the exception of the tent, there is no permanent damage to the facility.
“I went down to check things out and they had taped up the slices in the tent,” he said. “It’s not all better, but that is something where we are going to have to figure out if we can get it repaired or if we just have to get a new one…There is no lack of services or facilities for anybody.”
Madison has had trouble lately with continued vandalism at Academy School and some vandalism at Tuxis Walkway. Banisch said he thinks it might all be the same person or same group of people.
“I am sickened by the continued vandalism, but the police have some leads and I am hopeful that we are going to see an end to this,” he said.
Anyone who can identify these individuals in the photos they are asked to contact Detective Sergeant Neal Mulhern at 203-318-3040.