PRINCE GEORGE COUNTY, Va. -- It's a place where people can come to have fun, be outdoors and even get in some exercise. However, a group of vandals is putting all of these activities at risk.
These days, work isn't the same for John Bogue, the owner of Tree Time Adventures in Prince George County. The business is currently recovering from vandalism which is resulting in a significant bill that he will have to pay out of pocket.
A new security camera is one of the first things on his list.
"Well, they burnt the rope off, which doesn't make a whole lot of sense to me," Bogue said, pointing to a ladder. "So we found a piece of hardware hanging from this zip line. It clearly doesn't belong here so our assumption is that it was removed from some other part of the course."
Following the damages, their newest zip line had to be shut down. Now, Bogue has to hire an inspector who has to come from Canada.
"Which comes to about the tune of roughly $5,000 to have a course inspection done on that.
The biggest disappointment amid the vandalism is the damage done to the sign he used to propose to his fiancee.
"I don't know why they felt the need but they broke that sign and so that was disheartening, the sign was special to me," Bogue said.
The recreation center opened for a short time in 2019.
"This seems to be a bucket list item for a lot of people. My oldest customer has been 86-years-old," Bogue said.
When it was time for the 2020 season, the coronavirus shut down operations. Bogue had hoped that 2021 would be a good year for the business.
"This is really our first real season," Bogue said.
Bogue is disappointed in what happened at his business and that it took vandals just 20 minutes to do all the damage.
Anyone with information is asked to call Crime Solvers at (804) 733-2777.
