Little League President Vows to Find Vandals Who Hit Field Earlier This Week

Berkeley Little League officials have been able to pin down the time vandals struck the complex on Moorage Avenue on Monday night and .

The footage in the security cameras is grainy, with shades of black and gray. But just  before midnight on April 11, a figure in a hooded sweatshirt with initials on the back dashes in front of one of the buildings, across the camera's line of vision. He's followed shortly after by several other shadowy figures.

"I'm confident we'll be able to identify them, because of the sweatshirts," said League President Robert J. Everett Jr.

Everett shook his head in disgust as he replayed the footage on Saturday morning.

"It's just a stupid kid that has little respect for all the hard work people do," he said. "They take advantage of people that work so hard here."

The Little League complex on Moorage Avenue was full of those people this morning. They turned out to wash off the graffiti, build new announcers' booths, help hoist a new scoreboard into place, mow fields, and spruce up the complex in time for the opening game on Monday. The air was full of the sounds of power saws, drills and hammers.

But it's hard for some of the volunteers to forget what happened earlier this week. Thomas Kwatkoski, whose three sons play in the league, said he was saddened to hear of the vandalism.

"The phone rang, people came down here to see it," said Kwatkoski, who was putting his carpenter skills to good use.  "People came with their own chemicals. They wanted it (graffiti) off. That was like a slap in the face. People took it personally."

Sean Manning was just punching out on the time clock inside the kitchen of the concession stand, after volunteering most of his morning at the complex. Manning said he was shocked at the extent of the vandalism.

"A lot of my parents were outraged," Everett said. "In a weird way, it was kind of good to see they took it personally."

Between 10 to 15 areas at the complex were spray-painted, including the vinyl sign at the front of the complex, which will cost around $300 to replace, he said.

An Eagle Scout had just completed the brick work and landscaping under the sign last week, Everett said.

A news crew from WNBC-TV in New York came out Friday and interviewed Everett, after seeing the story on Berkeley Patch earlier this week, Everett said.

Anyone with any information is urged to call the Berkeley Township Police Department at 732-341-6600, or the Berkeley Little League at 732-606-9060. All information will be kept confidential.

But the volunteers will be back on the job Sunday morning, no matter what.