Graffiti found on Larose playground equipment

Vandals damaged about $80,000 worth of playground equipment at the Larose Civic Center last week, officials said.

Graffiti on two slides and a climbing piece was discovered by children playing at the Children's Tot Lot at the center, 307 E. Fifth St., Civic Center Director Jasmine Ayo said.

“We have an after-school program that kids come for, and they were playing on the equipment when they noticed it,” Ayo said. “It was so sad. We called the Sheriff's Office and filed a report, and the officers were really good about telling the kids that they were going to work on the case and find out who had done this to their park.”

Brennan Matherne, spokesman for the Lafourche Parish Sheriff's Office, said the graffiti, which includes several menacing faces and the word “killuminati,” is currently being investigated by the agency.

The vandalism occurred after a March 8 event the Civic Center held but before Thursday, when it was discovered, Ayo said.

The park has security cameras in the area, but they didn't capture anyone in the act, Ayo said.

“We've got cameras but not enough to cover the 46 acres of our property. The Sheriff's Office is really good about giving us extra patrols, but we didn't catch anyone doing the graffiti,” she said.

The Civic Center will be responsible for paying for the damages, Ayo said.

Volunteers assessed the damage Monday, but haven't decided how to best clean up the graffiti, Ayo said.

“We're going out there with graffiti cleaner. But if that doesn't work, we'll have to repaint it.”

Ayo said she'd rather not paint over the graffiti if possible as it will cover up the equipment's original finish, which is designed to be weatherproof and matches the undamaged equipment.

“Each piece of equipment we have costs around $10,000. We try to refresh it every couple of years because it's so well used,” Ayo said.

Residents like Amber Nicole of Cut Off say they're saddened by the vandalism.

“This breaks my heart because my kids love to play there,” she said.

Staff Writer Jordan Gribble can be reached at 857-2208 or jordan.gribble@houmatoday.com. Follow him on Twitter @JGrib_Courier.