Police Investigate Disturbing Case Of Vandalism In Cape May County
By Jan Carabeo
MIDDLE TOWNSHIP, NJ (CBS) -- It's not the way any district wants to start the new school year, dealing with inappropriate drawings, profanity, and hateful words all aimed at students. But Middle Township public schools is doing just that as it works to clean up graffiti at its athletics field on West Pacific Avenue.
"I'm appalled frankly because this is such a nice community," Brenda Zwibel said.
"That's horrible," Chuck Cianfrani adds.
What's worse are the racial slurs, scrawled by vandals who also wrote the phrase "White Power."
"This is 2014 there's no place for that now a days," Cianfrani said.
"What they did was not right," Clyde Curry agrees.
Curry remembers when Memorial Field was just a corn field. He's lived across the street his entire life.
The week's disturbing discovery has left him wanting justice.
"They catch them, should punish them, make them pay for it, their parents should pay for it," Curry said.
Middle Township Police are investigating and reviewing surveillance.
They say the video shows at least eight juveniles or young adults, suspects investigators are now trying to identify.
"Somebody will find out who they are, and better that they come clean now than after the fact," Zwibel said.
In the meantime, maintenance workers find themselves behind schedule with a costly job. The damage is estimated at two thousand dollars.
They've already covered graffiti on doors and bushes, and on Thursday they worked on the track, which will eventually need to be resealed.
But it's just a patch job for now with school starting and the Panthers High School football season only weeks away.
Eyewitness News reached out to school district officials for comment, but they did not return our calls.
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