A Little League team in La Marque that helps provide a safe and fun environment for mostly impoverished kids is now going to have an even harder time making next season possible.
That’s according to the organization’s president who says their concession stand was robbed and vandalized over the weekend.
The passion that DJ Arvie says he has for the La Marque and West Texas City Little League team he runs is unwavering, despite the challenges of maintaining the privately owned Bobby Beach Park.
“I’ve been out here about 14-15 years,” Arvie said. “A couple of years ago, we got vandalized. We thought we had fixed it. We got some donations from people.”
Now, for the third time this year, he says he’s forced to deal with vandalism at their concession stand.
“Man, this has been the worst,” he said.
Arvie believes the vandals used a shovel that was outside to pry open the windows and get inside. Not only does he say they ransacked the place and stole equipment, but they left their mark by pouring yellow paint pretty much everywhere.
“It’s like they took out all their frustrations, whatever they’re going through they took it all out right here,” he added.
He says green spray paint was also used to destroy the place.
“They painted this, they painted that. They painted that. Painted all our equipment in here. Painted the walls they felt like saying ‘FU,’” he said.
Arvie says he first noticed the latest break-in on Sunday but was too upset to deal with it.
When he returned Monday, not only did they come back to do more damage, he caught them in the act.
“Two or three minutes after I got off the phone with police, I see two young men running through here trying to hide in the high grass,” Arvie said.
With an estimated 10 to 15 thousand dollars in losses, Arvie says he filed a police report.
But, instead of getting those responsible in trouble, he’d much rather something else.
“Just come and talk to me, man. Let me know what you want to do to help yourself, cause what you’re doing right now ain’t helping you. This going to get you killed,” he said.