Vandals steal trucks, wreck Cosmo Park fields

Two vandals are still on the loose after causing tens of thousands of dollars worth of damage to Columbia’s Cosmo Park.

Early Saturday morning, two people broke into city vehicles at the park and plowed through fences before doing doughnuts on athletic fields at the Rainbow Softball Field Center.

“The cost to repair the fencing and the turf damage to the two fields will be approximately $10,000,” said Columbia Park Services manager Gabe Huffington.

However, that estimate does not include the city vehicles that were damaged.

Huffington says one truck was driven into the lake and then abandoned.

Columbia police are investigating the case and no arrests have been made. Investigators are using surveillance video from the park ranger’s center, where the vehicles were taken.

Suspect descriptions and images from the surveillance video were not available Sunday night.

Players who use the ball fields told ABC 17 News they were frustrated that someone would vandalize a city park.

One park-goer said the aftermath poses dangers to players.

“It’s kind of a hazard now too, because if a ball goes down a line, you have to pretty much just stop and let it fall because you don’t want to go into the fence now and get poked with some random metal,” said Matt Kelly.

Huffington said this is one of the worst instances of vandalism he has seen and he hopes the two responsible will be caught.

Stay with ABC 17 News and abc17news.com for details as they become available.