How do you prevent vandalism at your local course?

[cali]

This is a very serious issue at my home course. Belmont Park. It is insane the amount of damage people do to this place while managing to stay under the radar and never get caught. Teesigns are constantly knocked over, benches and picnic tables will be broken, someone was nice enough to build a set of wooden bleachers at the 6,9,11 teebox area 2 years ago for people who want to watch multiple holes at once during tournaments, those were demolished within 2 weeks and last but not least the ever-so-frequent theft of basket #18. Last November someone tried to steal it again and couldn't manage to get it out of the ground so they settled for breaking the chain rigging off and take that. DDG finally got a new chain rig and got the basket up and running again about 3 weeks ago, only for the entire basket to get stolen (again) last week.

I feel something needs to be done about this shit. Anyone else have this same problem they have been able to resolve? Belmont is one of the oldest and most historical courses in the state of Ohio and also one of the most disrespected. Something has to be done.

 

[Script]

I would make sure that the local police are aware of the situation. A random cop late at night will help prevent people from stealing baskets. Other than that, awareness in the neighborhood and on the course can help.

 

[cali]

I'm looking for suggestions beyond the obvious. Belmont police are well aware of the problem but they could care less. Also, the people who live on the course do everything they can to better its appearance and playability but it is much quicker and easier to break something than to build it.

 

[DiscGolfTeeSigns.com]

snipers!

 

[Koffee]

I played in a place in Texas that had a really great system and im pretty sure it was set up like this because of vandalism. To give a visual cue as where to walk to from tee to tee (was very easy to navigate for a new person to the course) They had 4 in steel poles buried in the ground and painted neon orange with the number of the hole stenciled on it.

As for the hole layout they poured a big thick piece of concrete then ran off a picture of the hole with the different pin placements and info on tyvek paper (may be spelled wrong) then they poured a resin over it till it was about an inch deep. Looks like all they do if someone paints it is hit is with some type of paint remover.

It is heavy enough that I cant imagine someone or two someones lifting it. I guess you could have someone take a pick or sledge to it but at least that would make people plan to vandalize your sign.

Cheers - Koffee

 

[Script]

I'm looking for suggestions beyond the obvious

Ouch dude

 

[ChUcKyZ]

It sounds like you have a serious problem. I get the feeling that it isn't juvenile delinquents. Such dedicated and consistent vandalism smacks of a local "pillar of the community" who doesn't want disc golf in Belmont.

I agree with Zam, snipers are the way to go. Air-soft rifles trained on 18's basket. You'll have to work in shifts, though.

 

[jsun3thousand]

Your only hope...

 

[KJDog19]

You could always hook the baskets up to power generator. :lol:

 

[masterbeato]

hold a weekly night golf league.

yet again those idiots are probably stealing past 10.

the only thing i can think of is forcing people to physically not be able to vandalize stuff by making them heavy or really strong. we have had this problem before at many courses around here and it actually slowed down by itself, and my other guess would be make it a pay to play course but that does not really stop any intruders if the course is around a neighborhood with easy access to the course anyway, but there is basically no way to stop people from killing a bench or a sign which is why most of the courses around here have no benches or signs because they just get wrecked anyway if it is an area of high vandalism.

try the night league thing anyways for the basket issue or relocate the basket and see if that stops it, that would be the only way that would be easy to see if it works.

if you need to as a last resort, i really agree with the sniper idea, but paintball rifle, but instead fill the pellets with traces of syphilis, herpes, or pure magnesium citrate and have the worst case of diarrhea ever.

 

[Frank Delicious]

Not very well, half our tee signs have been stolen and one basket was stolen.

 

[juju1]

but instead fill the pellets with traces of syphilis, herpes, or pure magnesium citrate and have the worst case of diarrhea ever.

he said he is looking for ideas beyond the obvious...

 

[AciDBatH666]

Just having traffic in the area helps. But that's hard to do at night.
Our main park used to not have too many ppl in it, other than ghetto-ish people. We'd find condom wrappers all over the place. Now, the park gets so much traffic from casual players that no one really wants to go into the woods because they never know when someone will come along.

 

[black udder]

it's a tough sell, but additional lighting if there isn't any.

Outside of that, it would be a concerted effort to hang out and discover who is doing it, then take appropriate action.

Someone posted long ago that they buried their baskets in like 6 square feet of mesh covered in concrete. People were pulling the baskets out of the ground with truck. Now you can't remove them at all.

Sorry to hear it - really shows what jerks people can be.

If the City could get involved, mounted security cameras could be installed. Perhaps even just signs "this area is now being monitored by security cameras" would be enough to deter them.

The peacekeeper in me is all for electric baskets after 10pm or the good old leaving the bodies on stakes in the open field. That worked for Vlad.

 

[peppermack]

I agree with sitting out there a few nights and figure out who is doing it. Then a good old fashion civics lesson on the repercussions of stealing and vandalizing property that does not belong to them is in order. I am generally a very nonviolent type person, as evidence I have never been in a fight in my entire 33 years of life, but some people need to be shown wild west style that things will not be tolerated. If the police don't care, and other measures you try in the future don't work, go medieval on their ass. But I am a cynical person and go by the 80-20 rule. 80% of people suck, and only 20% solid upstanding people.

 

[HeartlessCynic]

But I am a cynical person and go by the 80-20 rule. 80% of people suck, and only 20% solid upstanding people.

HA! You call THAT cynical. :lol:

 

[mpalcic]

on top of the light, get one of those deer camera's that will take a picture when there is movement and hang it in the tree for awhile. You will probably need to hang it in the tree pretty high or just obscure so that way the thieves cant get to it when it snaps a picture of their asses. also you would probably have to take it down during the day unless u wanted pics of everyone who plays there.

sorry to hear that this is happening.

These are the kind of things that gives dg a bad rep.
all i really want to know is why would u do it?
I HATE IDIOTS!

 

[sunspot]

A couple of speakers and this:

Never again will your course be vandalized, never again.

 

[keltik1]

well the only thing I can think of is to strap some of those motion sensor digital cameras that deer hunters use to some trees near the basket and just wait. when the basket gets gone again you'll have evidence of who done it.

EDIT: or you could go with Celine Dion over the PA with BB gun snipers.

 

[Koffee]

Another approach is to bug the police about it and they will eventually fold to the pressure and patrol the area more frequently. If the vandalism looks really bad call the local news they often do local interest stories and that will definitely put pressure on the local police.

CHEERS - Koffee