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The City of Whyalla has issued a warning to vandals that their behaviour will not be tolerated and reports will continue to be made to police.
In the latest incident, the large dog artwork structure at the dog park on Searle Street was tipped over sometime on Thursday night or Friday morning. This resulted in more than $2000 in damage as council crews put the dog back on its feet and must now conduct structural repairs.
Whyalla Mayor Lyn Breuer said council won’t rest in its fight against vandals while also continuing to support the work behind the scenes at other levels to address the problem.
“As a council we won’t stop working to prevent these moronic acts,” Mayor Breuer said.
“This is public property, paid for by the ratepayers and we won’t stand for it being senselessly damaged.
“Every time somebody idiotically breaks and destroys public property it is costing us all.
“We’ve again spoken to police about this incident and we fully support the work they are doing with patrols and at other levels to address this problem in our city.
“It is only a very small minority of people responsible for these incidents and the rest of the community should be rightly outraged by this behaviour.”
Whyalla police rang the incident in to the council with a subsequent police report made. The damage caused is a criminal offence which can carry significant consequences for those responsible.
“As was the case with recent damage at Civic Park, council is continuing to look into security improvements to prevent this sort of stupidity,” Mayor Breuer said.
“Anyone thinking about vandalising public or private property around the city should be warned they stand an increasing chance of being caught and prosecuted.
"There are programs being worked on at the grass-roots level to educate and help guide our youth away from this sort of behaviour that we full support too."
Reports of vandalism to public property can be made to council any time of the day on 8640 3444.