Vandals destroy toilets at Onehunga Reserve
Sinks were hanging from the wall, the toilets were smashed and the cubicle walls were lying on the ground.
It was a sight Kerry Martin and Steve Grant, owners of Rixen Cableways Ltd, didn’t want to see when they arrived at Onehunga Bay Reserve in Auckland on Sunday morning.
Martin says the reserve’s toilet block had been ‘‘absolutely destroyed’’.
‘‘Someone has had a crazy episode of some kind,’’ he says.
‘‘You don’t expect someone to break into a toilet.’’
Martin says graffiti was tagged all over the building and on the grass out the front.
The window of the cable park’s storage room, which is attached to the toilet block, had also been broken and bottles of coconut water and a flashlight were missing.
Martin says security in the area hasn’t been a big problem since they established the cable park at the lagoon earlier this year.
‘‘When we started going down to the cable park there was tagging but it stopped.
‘‘As we eased up on operations it started coming back.’’
Auckland Council’s central/ west operations manager Janny Thompson says the toilets are locked each night so the damage must have occurred on Saturday evening when they were open to the public.
Thompson says contractors are in the process of assessing the damage to the toilet block.
‘‘We aim to have repairs completed and the facilities reopened as soon as possible.
‘‘Once we have confirmed a timeframe for repairs, we will install signage to advise when we expect the toilets to reopen.’’