Thieves were caught on camera stealing $14,000 worth of playground turf from a Marysville school and church.
Dan Hoeglund, Deacon of Trinity Evangel Church, said the turf was stolen in at least three separate incidents by the same two men during Christmas break.
The church is also home to Evangel Classical School where 160 students attend.
“They (thieves) even looked at the camera as they’re blatantly continuing to do it,” he said. “They just didn’t care. It was really kind of shocking that somebody would be that blatant out there to do this and leave us hanging with a loss.”
The school had plans to upgrade its playground, which is currently the school’s parking lot, by laying turf on its grassy field.
A local family donated $28,000 worth of turf to help with the project.
“The kids are running constantly. They’re bumping into each other. They’re falling. They’re scraping their knees, arms, faces,” said Hoeglund.
Erin Pakinas, a teacher and mother, said the school can’t afford this hurdle.
“We’re a small private Christian school so we’re not rolling in it,” she said. “We don’t have a ton of extra funds.”
“For the theft to transpire during hours when others were awake, we thought it was pretty brazen,” said Jonathan Sarr, headmaster. “To say it was a setback and a blow is an understatement. We had a months-long approval process for the permitting and we were finally ready to break ground.”
The thieves stole the first roll of turf after the City of Marysville had approved the school’s permit to upgrade its playground in December, the school said.
The school had been waiting for the approval for about a year, the school added.
Marysville police said no arrests have been made as of Thursday.
If anyone has information, they’re asked to call the Marysville Police Department at 360-363-8300.
The case number is 25-887.
A GoFundMe was created to help the school.