Vandals struck Sherwood Field last week. Again.

They left behind broken pipes and water spigots, smashed door knobs, ugly spray-painted graffiti, and more. Inside the concession stand at Sherwood, the vandals used ketchup to write nasty words across a grill used to cook hot dogs during All-Star games. 

They also stole a public address system. 

John Renquinha, the superintendent at the Barrington Department of Public Works, said this year has been the worst for vandalism.

“Absolutely, there’s been an uptick,” Renquinha said. “Especially, this particular neighborhood here, we’ve noticed it in the dugouts, graffiti. It started off with graffiti, then it moved into the Port-a-Johns. The Port-a-John company will not put any more Port-a-Johns here because of the vandalism. It got hit about four or five times. Topped over. Graffiti. It looked like they were trying to start a fire inside one of them. 

“The last notification we got from the Port-a-John company, the last time it happened, they said they will not put one here anymore. We put security lights, they’re on a timer, they go on at night. We talked to the police. Put it on their rounds. I’m assuming it’s an increased patrol. And then last night we got hit again, but last time they actually broke faucets and piping. They pulled it through the perimeter wall. It’s not being done in five minutes. It looks like a hangout behind the building. We cleaned it all out this morning. We cleaned out the beer cans. Beer cans. Gatorade bottles. The typical teenage stuff.”

Renquinha said the ball fields in town are often targets for vandals — a few years back, someone vandalized the concession stand building at Chianese Field. 

“We ended up spending the money, putting security LED lights around the building,” Renquinha said. “Then the neighbors complained because it was too bright.”

Renquinha said the recent spell of vandalism at Sherwood started in the spring, and issues have worsened over the last few weeks. Someone shredded a tarp used as a windscreen on the backstop. The town had to replace that, and a few weeks later someone spray-painted vulgar words across it. The DPW workers returned and covered up the graffiti. 

In early July, someone ripped on the water spigot coming out of the back of the concession stand — a pipe inside broke free and water flooded the building, damaging items owned by Barrington Little League. 

Renquinha said the damage has cost the town thousands. 

Barrington Little League President Aaron Aguiar has noticed the uptick in vandalism at Sherwood. He has seen plenty of destruction in the past — someone spray-painted the entire concession stand building a couple years back — but the recent incidents have been escalating, he said. 

Aguiar stopped at Sherwood early last week and removed all of the food concessions from the building. 

“I don’t want to have anything in here when these guys break in again and have a food fight. And they start taking Gatorade or hot dogs or more condiments and just start making a mess. No way. Not happening,” Aguiar said. “We have a smaller PA system, and that was stolen. The one you have seen at softball games…we never kept that here because of the elements, because it’s not climate controlled. And I walked away yesterday with the controller to the scoreboard. It’s going to be at my house until I know it’s safe. I’m not going to keep anything of value here.”

Aguiar said league officials are frustrated by the vandalism. He said the destruction also impacts other DPW work in town.

“Every time this happens, I have to call the DPW and I know it’s their job, but at the same time it’s not. They shouldn’t have to be doing this,” Aguiar said. “It’s taking away from whatever else they have to do. They do such a fantastic job for us to maintain the fields, so to have to come power-wash spray-paint graffiti off of this, it’s a waste of their time. I will say, they are extremely quick to respond. When that blue spray-paint was done, they were pretty quick to respond…They’ve responded quickly and we appreciate that. 

“The knuckleheads are going to ruin it for everybody.”

Aguiar said the department of public works trimmed back some of the trees that had surrounding the back of the concession stand building. Officials are hoping that the better visibility will help reduce the attacks. 

Aguiar also said that while some of the graffiti includes anti-semitic and racial slurs, he does not believe the vandalism was racially-motivated. 

“I want to be very clear about this — yes, they have used not just vulgarities, but they’ve actually used some racial slurs. I don’t think that this is in any way racially motivated. I just think this was some stupid thing… if you want to get peoples’ attention, negative attention, then do it like that,” Aguiar said. “I will leave the true speculation to the police if they’re going to investigate this, but I don’t think it’s related to that, and we don’t, as a league, want to emphasize that… I don’t want to be dealing with speculating.”

In an interview early this week, Barrington Police Chief Michael Correia commented about the vandalism at Sherwood Field. 

“It’s most likely juveniles. It’s that type of behavior. I think it’s misguided juveniles,” Chief Correia said, adding that the department has increased patrols in that part of town.