Emily Longnecker/Eyewitness News
Johnson County - A local elementary school is the center of a vandalism investigation just hours before the start of the new school year.
Investigators say someone set fire to part of the playground and defaced the outside of the building at Sugar Grove Elementary School around 3 a.m. Monday. Pictures of the damage show $60,000 in playground equipment up in smoke.
"That's quite a bit of money," said parent Tim Eiler.
Eiler, along with other parents and their children, still found fun at Sugar Grove Elementary's playground Monday afternoon, even as fire investigators and police looked for those responsible for setting part of the playground on fire early Monday morning.
"For the people that are out there that think they can get away with this, I want them to think again," warned Center Grove School Police Chief Bill Spitler.
"It's an unfortunate thing, like I said, for the school because school's starting tomorrow," said Jim Engmark, spokesman for the White River Township Fire Department.
Investigators say they found burned math books they believe were taken from the school's dumpster and used to start the fire, but that's not all they found.
"They found some human feces that was spread all over the door of the school," explained Engmark. "The letter P and number 2. Don't know what that means or what that's about, but that's what was on there."
"I can't believe somebody done that in this neighborhood," added Eiler as he watched his son play on the playground.
Investigators say there was no material like gasoline used to start this fire. They say whoever did this, didn't need it, with the mulch on the playground as dry as it was.
"It was a dry wood mulch so it didn't take much to get it going," said Engmark.
Not to mention the plastic playground equipment.
"It probably helped feed the fire," explained Engmark.
According to police, there was other vandalism to the playground this summer, but nothing quite like this.
"We've had regular graffiti. We've had damage to the building itself," said Chief Spitler.
"What does worry me, mostly, is the kids, the older kids during the summer around here who just really don't have a lot to do and you find them up at 1 o'clock, 2 o'clock in the morning, doing silly stuff like this," said neighbor Heidi Schackleford.
But investigators aren't saying who they think could be responsible, only that they'll find them.
"It's a big crime as far as the penalty that goes along with it," explained Spitler.
