Vandals strike out against Little League

LYNN – Volunteers who maintain the Little League baseball field on Clark Street found the concession stand torn apart, vandalized and robbed without any clear signs of forced entry. The vandals got into the building and stole food, money and supplies. They took what was left and used it to trash the place, smearing ketchup and tossing trash and food around the inside of the stand. They even took markers and drew inappropriate things on the wall behind the shelves, according to East Lynn Little League secretary Brandy Rodriguez, who spent more than an hour cleaning up the mess on Tuesday. Still, there is damage that will take more than just a cleanup to fix.”The fridges are a total loss,” Rodriguez said. “The deposit box is broken. They took hundreds of dollars in cash, they took candy, supplies, coffee, pizza, popcorn, hot chocolate and a lot of other things.”Money that was raised by the children by walking around with a hat and asking for donations during games was also stolen. Each hat is typically filled with $15 to $20 and then kept in separate brown paper bags. There were at least 10 bags torn apart and thrown on the floor.Envelopes full of money made from sales at the stand were also ripped open and emptied. The board hasn’t yet determined the total amount stolen but just one of the many envelopes was marked to have had $86 in it.”I can’t believe that someone would disrespect a volunteering organization like this,” Rodriguez said. “Volunteers spent a lot of time setting this up and a lot of time shopping for the supplies.”The group of volunteers is made up of people who have children in the league and also parents of players who have outgrown Little League but still choose to continue volunteering their time. They also have several people who just want to help out, Rodriguez said.”The people who volunteer are just phenomenal,” she said. “Everyone is just shocked by this. We’re all disgusted.””I just can’t believe that someone would do this,” she said. “What a shame.”Her son, Ben Rodriguez, is 5 years old and plays baseball at the field. He was very upset to see the concession stand in shambles.”It must be a bad man who did this,” Ben said.The board hasn’t figured out how the vandals were able to break into the building in the first place. None of the windows or doors were broken or appeared to be pried open.”I hate to say it but the door had to either have been left unlocked for some reason or someone had a key,” Rodriguez said. “We haven’t figured out how they got in.”East Lynn Little League posted on its Facebook page that they would be changing its padlocks and setting up a GoFundMe page to raise money for the stand and get it back up and running.Thankfully, Rodriguez said, it’s the off-season for baseball and the concession stand won’t be needed until the next season begins. The city will have an opportunity to put time and effort into fixing it up, Rodriguez said, who is also working on getting the building painted.”We’ll figure it out,” Rodriguez said. “We won’t let it stop us. A lot of people have said they’re willing to chip in and get us back on our feet.”