Figurine flipped
Fountain in yard knocked over, left in pieces
Couple’s garden fountain vandalized a second time
Dave and Gail Hynes awoke Friday morning to the sun shining, the birds chirping, the bees buzzing through their flourishing garden … and their water fountain overturned and in pieces.
“Luckily, it isn’t all broken,” Dave told The Telegram, lifting up the base of the damaged fountain to reveal two stone children, standing under an umbrella, lying facedown in the grass underneath. “It can be fixed, but at the same time I’m asking myself, why should I put it back together for someone to come by tomorrow and knock it over again?” According to the St. John’s couple, this isn’t the first time someone has targeted their fountain.
“A few years ago, the same thing happened. But they just flipped over the umbrella, and I was able to fix that, too,” Dave said. “I think it’s just kids passing by at night. They don’t mean any real harm, but really, why bother?”
For more than 30 years, the couple has been turning their property into a beautiful evergreen wonderland, with many different plants and flowers sprouting everywhere you turn.
“She came out one day and said, ‘Dave, I want to plant a bush,’ so I said alright and did it, and now look where we’re at,” Dave laughed, gesturing to the plentiful greenery surrounding their home.
The fountain, he says, was a Mother’s Day gift for his wife many years ago — so long ago he can hardly remember when.
“She wasn’t too pleased when she woke up,” he said, referring to the vandalism that had occurred while they slept the night before.
“My first instinct was that they took the figurine and just smashed it,” Gail told The Telegram. “But this just makes me sick, you know? You just get all this angst … and for what gain did they do it? It’s just straight vandalism. Pure vandalism.
“It’s just sad,” she added. “There’s really no reason for it.”
The couple reported the incident to the RNC, but say they don’t expect much of an outcome. They have no plans to move the fountain.