Vandals broke in to a Brooklyn golf course and went on joy rides in golf carts, smashing up 25 golf carts, trashing the course and causing an estimated $100,000 worth of damage, according to a story in the New York Post.
“It looks like a tornado hit the course,” Director of Golf Operations at Marine Park Golf Course Richard McDonough told the Post on Monday.
The damaging spree comes at a tough time for the course, still among those New York City-area courses closed due to the coronavirus pandemic.
When golf courses in the area re-open, social-distance restrictions will likely include a one-person-per-golf-cart rule. The loss of nearly half the course’s golf carts at Marine Park will make that challenging.
“The longer the New York City courses stay closed, the more opportunity for vandals to do their destruction,” Marine Park Golf Course General Manager Stephen Fabrizio told Golfweek in an email.
The Post reports that police responded to a 911 call around 9 p.m. on Sunday. Officers arriving on the scene in their squad car almost collided with five individuals, each of whom immediately got out of the golf carts and fled on foot into a nearby shopping center parking lot.
A brief foot chase led to the capture of a 16-year-old boy, who was arrested on charges of burglary, grand larceny, criminal mischief, reckless endangerment and criminal trespass.
