The Herald has chosen not to publish exactly what was written on the Scouts den walls. Photo / George Heard
Scout leaders are hoping police can catch vandals who spray-painted vile hate speech over their Scouts den during level four lockdown.
Racist and disturbing tags have been discovered on the white walls of Rolleston's Scouts den.
It's understood the vandalism happened over the weekend and was found on Monday morning.
And it appears the vandals were on a rampage around the area, with fences, other buildings, and a BMW car being spray-painted, while a road sign was toppled over and tagged.
Members of the public came across the Scouts den vandalism and let local leaders know.
"It's pretty terrible... hopefully they'll get caught," said local leader and committee member Joanna Burnett.
Although the vandals appear to have sprayed black paint over CCTV cameras on the den itself, Burnett hopes that other cameras operating in the reserve will provide some clues as to who was behind the attack.
It was reported to police this morning.
A police spokeswoman said officers are assessing the initial report, including whether there is "any useful CCTV footage available".
Two Venturers from the same Covid-19 bubble have volunteered to scrub the offending paint off the walls today, while a local builder who was doing some paintwork on the den this week anyway, will paint over it.
"We need to make sure it's gone completely before the kids go back there because we certainly don't want young children seeing that sort of thing," Burnett said.
"I don't believe it was targeted at Scouts directly, but you don't know what goes through these people's minds."
Police ask that if anyone has any information which may help their inquiries, to get in touch via 105.
Powerball has now rolled over to $10 million for Wednesday night's draw.