Catching Vandals has to be one of the best feelings Cancel The title field is required!

1. James Smith

   

   112 posts
   
   8/6/2013 10:08 AM

   Starting on Sunday night July 18th we had Vandals messing around with outside equipment. Nothing serious but a big hassel anyway you look at it. Well they continue to return every night or evening until we finally caught them on Friday afternoon just before 3:00pm. Two kids between 10-12 years old ended up being responsible for over $1,500 in damages throughout the week.
   
   I had noticed two kids hanging out by our #14 tee box in the afternoon and when we knocked off for the day I drove past them and then went around the block and parked in a friends driveway and waited. within 30 minutes they proceeded to inter the course heading directly for my shop. I call 911 and the police arrived within 5 minutes and caught the little vandals. It was fun to watch them run around like scared rabbitts trying to find an escape route. The officers had to threaten to shoot and taze them to get them to drop to the ground.
   
   Now for the court system to do its thing.

   
   
   
   
2. Spotts David A

   
   8/6/2013 12:08 PM

   way to go. I was lucky enough to catch 3 kids about 20 years ago who were responsible for 4K in damages. We won a judgment in court against the minors but I am long gone from that course so I don't know if they ever collected when they got older but it felt good, and word got around and the rest of my tenure there was close to vandal free, except of course the golfers who played the public course.

   
   
   
   
3. John Borcher

   

   0 posts
   
   8/6/2013 3:08 PM

   I wish I could catch the person or persons responsible for defecating in the cup on the 2nd hole. They have hit it 4 times this year so the total cost is only 4 cups but I always dread driving out to the second green to check it.

   
   
   
   
4. Andy Jorgensen

   

   1 posts
   
   8/6/2013 7:08 PM

   John Borcher said: I wish I could catch the person or persons responsible for defecating in the cup on the 2nd hole. They have hit it 4 times this year so the total cost is only 4 cups but I always dread driving out to the second green to check it.

   
   
   
   Sorry about that. The club's lunch always catches up with me at the same spot!
   
   Can you leave some TP at least?

   
   
   
   
5. Holt Michael

   
   8/7/2013 2:08 PM

   James,
   Do yourself a favor and tell the judge that you would drop the charges if you can have both of them for 40 hours of work at the golf course. I did that one time and there is no better feeling. I worked the snot out of those kids for a week before they went back to school. One of them threw a trash receptacle in the pond about 3 foot deep. He had the choice, go swimming in green algae to retrieve it or buy another at $80. It was great watching him wade out there and come back and say "boy I should not have done that", meaning throw it in the pond. All the nasty smelly ditches that needed to be cleaned out, you got it. They were hating life after that week. Better yet their Dad was a law professor at a local college and he agreed to it all. It is far better than restitution or the slap on the wrist that they would have gotten.

   
   
   
   
6. James Smith

   

   112 posts
   
   8/8/2013 11:08 AM

   Michael Holt, CGCS said: James,
   Do yourself a favor and tell the judge that you would drop the charges if you can have both of them for 40 hours of work at the golf course. I did that one time and there is no better feeling. I worked the snot out of those kids for a week before they went back to school. One of them threw a trash receptacle in the pond about 3 foot deep. He had the choice, go swimming in green algae to retrieve it or buy another at $80. It was great watching him wade out there and come back and say "boy I should not have done that", meaning throw it in the pond. All the nasty smelly ditches that needed to be cleaned out, you got it. They were hating life after that week. Better yet their Dad was a law professor at a local college and he agreed to it all. It is far better than restitution or the slap on the wrist that they would have gotten.

   
   I do not know if that would be wise with 10-12 year olds. Seems like too much risk and not enough rewards. I will think about it though.

   
   
   
   
7. Peter Bowman

   

   11 posts
   
   8/8/2013 12:08 PM

   James Smith said: I do not know if that would be wise with 10-12 year olds. Seems like too much risk and not enough rewards. I will think about it though.

   
   
   Have them clean the course restroom(s) after every group has gone through. And make them buy their own golves.

   
   
   
   
8. Brad Marcy

   

   0 posts
   
   8/9/2013 8:08 AM

   You guys that have caught ,prosecuted and collected the monetary reimbursement from these vandals are so lucky. I have caught 2 sets of vandals, both minors, and gotten almost nothing in return. One of them for doing donuts on #5 green with a golf cart while playing a round, and another for kicking in my office door, stealing things, taking a cart for a joy ride and doing donuts on #1 green.
   
   Both groups were caught and prosecuted but turns out that juveniles in the state are only required to pay $1,000 max on a $5,000 vandalism charge.
   
   Catching them was great! But watching them not get punished for what they did is like getting punched in the gut.

   
   
   
   
9. Wahlin Scott B

   
   8/9/2013 12:08 PM

   Vandalizing the golf course is like a rite of passage for many. The willingness of adults to admit to doing it as teens never ceases to amaze me. It is like, "Yep, I was a real a-hole as a teenager, ha ha!"
   
   I had a kid tear up a green with a Land Rover. The police officer who caught him punched him in the throat. The officer was also a member.

   
   
   
   
10. Timothy Walker

    

    0 posts
    
    8/9/2013 1:08 PM

    Scott Wahlin, CGCS said: Vandalizing the golf course is like a rite of passage for many. The willingness of adults to admit to doing it as teens never ceases to amaze me. It is like, "Yep, I was a real a-hole as a teenager, ha ha!"
    
    I had a kid tear up a green with a Land Rover. The police officer who caught him punched him in the throat. The officer was also a member.

    
    
    
    That was funny

    
    
    
    
11. Bradley Frunchak

    

    24 posts
    
    8/9/2013 7:08 PM

    Had a group of kids who would have a party most weekends on one of the teeboxes. One of my staff volunteered to turn the sprinklers on them around midnight. One girl was laying in front of one head and soaked her. The other head hit the main group. In the dark they had no idea which direction the water was going so they ran into both sprinklers again. They haven't returned since. I use effluent water so they all were a little smelly after that. Some of my staff knew some of the partiers and they told my staff that they got soaked and smelly. When they told the partiers that it was literally crap water they were grossed out and said they were going to find a different place to drink. It has saved me some tee markers and some flag sticks.

    
    
    
    
12. Bill Brooks

    

    18 posts
    
    8/11/2013 10:08 AM

    10 years ago we had teenagers in a 4x4 who spun circles on our greens. Well that was not enough for there excitement, they went flying down our #4 fwy with a bunker right in the middle. Cops determined that the speed of the 4x4 was going between 30-40 mph when they hit. The teenagers were nice enough to leave their license plate right in the bunker. My boss had the cops pick up the plate and take it to the house of the teenager. To this day they are still paying for damages $50.00 a month.

    
    
    
    
13. Jeff Strother

    

    0 posts
    
    8/15/2013 11:08 AM

    We are closed in the summertime. About a month ago, just after a very heavy rain that left standing water around the golf course, I saw a truckload of teens up at our entrance, which is at the foot of a bridge that leads to the course. This bridge is over a water channel, that kids like to jump off at times, until we come and run them off. When I pulled up they immediately knew I was there to run them off. After a short conversation I took off assuming they were leaving. After I pulled away they stopped the truck and were getting ready to get off so I turned around and went back.
    
    me: I asked you guys not to jump off the bridge
    them: we aren't jumping off the bridge
    me: then what are you doing
    them: we are going wake boarding
    me: where?
    them: on the golf course
    me: a few choice words I can't post here
    
    Are you kidding? Can't beleive those kids had the balls to not only wake board on the golf course, but during the middle of the day in broad daylight, while my crew is on the course, and even tell me they were going to do it.
    
    The part that really made me scratch my head was the beach is all of 300 yards away.

    
    
    
    
14. Robert Crockett

    

    4 posts
    
    8/15/2013 1:08 PM

    Had one 2 wks ago.....This was a grown man (if you can call him that). He did a couple of donuts on our concrete court yard. I knew who it was and took all the pics including tire tracks. We're tight knit here so a couple of associates of mine asked him not to do it again. Yep....he did it again. He's going through a divorce (I can see why). I documented it again and sent the pics to the City Mgr. Then after being told AGAIN not to do it. He and a friend of his came out about 3am and did it again (Stone cold drunk). This time he found out how stout my office over hang is. He slammed into it sideways with his brand new 2013 black camaro. Not only did it do $10,000.00 worth of damage to his vehicle, I slapped a Criminal Trespass on him that cost him a trip to the pokey. He had to bond out and before he could play here again, had to give me an apollogy and several others.
    
    Ahhhhh....what a feeling