Parent believes jungle gym in Desert Hot Springs park tampered with intent to harm children
On Sunday, a Coachella Valley resident noticed several bolts were missing or loose from a roughly seven-foot high jungle gym platform at a Desert Hot Springs Park.
The father claimed it must have been purposely tampered with to either destroy the playground, or injure the children who use it. The man said the hardware included safety bolts, designed to stay locked despite vibrations and movement, and ones which would not loosen on their own.
“It takes a special type of a bit to put them in and take them out. They don’t just fall out on their own that that way,” said the man in a video he posted to the DHS Community Facebook page.
In the video, a portion of the jungle gym is missing two large bolts and is easily moved out of place by the man. He then inspects the bottom area of the piece, where he claims to have found more loose bolts and evidence of ill-intent.
News Channel 3’s and CBS Local 2’s Katie Widner reached out to the city, which chalked it up to natural wear and tear despite the playground being “relatively new.” Doria Wilms, the public information officer for the city, said inspectors with the Public Works department did not find any evidence of tampering. The problem had been fixed by Monday morning, she said.
“They’re well-versed in being able to determine if there was any sort of scrapes or anything like that on the equipment and none of that was found,” she said.
Wilms added that the bolts were found on the ground below the equipment and that the DHS Police Department did not feel there was evidence of tampering and, therefore, did not open an investigation into the matter.
However, some people were left wondering- if the equipment was not intentionally harmed, then why did city inspectors not catch the issue sooner?
Wilms said that Public Works employees visit the city’s parks everyday, but the incident was enough to warrant a third-party inspection.
“We have an outside agency coming out to actually asses all of our parks and the safety of the equipment and the sturdiness of the equipment,” she said.
Wilms said the agency will be conducting their rounds next week. In addition to the upcoming inspections, the city urges anyone who ever notices anything wrong with park equipment to contact the city’s community development director at 760-329-6411, ext. 216
For residents in other cities, people are encouraged to contact their local Public Works department.
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