Bayview golf course, Castle High vandalized
By Rod Ohira
Advertiser Staff Writer
Vandals wrecked 19 golf carts and damaged the 14th green and five fairways at Bayview Golf Park in Kane'ohe early Sunday shortly after a separate break-in at Castle High School.
Rebecca Breyer • The Honolulu Advertiser
In the Castle incident, vandals broke into student lockers and stole a golf cart.
Tony Kanzic, director of golf at Bayview Golf Park in Kane'ohe, displays one of the 19 golf carts damaged by vandals early Sunday.
The two cases appear connected because the golf cart stolen from Castle was found in the cart barn at the Bayview course at 45-285 Kane'ohe Bay Drive. There are no security guards at the golf course and Castle High uses a roving security patrol at night. Neither site had security surveillance cameras.
Tony Kanzic, Bayview's director of golf, said 19 of his 45 golf carts were wrecked by vandals who used them "to play bumper cars" on the course. Nine of the 19 carts were top-of-the-line carts, he said.
The carts' fiberglass bodies sustained heavy damage and all have serious damage to the steering systems and tire frames, Kanzic said. One cart was found in a creek, two others in sand bunkers, three at a nearby elementary school, one on the property of a neighboring retirement center and the rest strewn over the course.
The estimated damage is about $65,000, Kanzic said. The damaged carts cannot be repaired and officials at the course are scrambling to get carts for a tournament of 92 to 100 players this weekend.
Judging from the cart use, Kanzic believes 18 people were involved. The vandals used a bolt cutter to snap a padlock to the cart barn at about 1 a.m. The damage was discovered Sunday at 5 a.m.
Police have made no arrests.
Castle principal Meredith Maeda said the school was vandalized between 9 p.m. Saturday and early Sunday morning. A bolt cutter was used to snap padlocks to 50 student lockers. Items from the lockers were scattered around the area.
The vandals also broke the exterior head of a water main.
"They're really hurting our kids because when we get vandalized like this we have to spend funds to repair pipes or fix walls that would go to the kids," Maeda said.
Reach Rod Ohira at rohira@honoluluadvertiser.com or 535-8181.
