Vandals couldn't have hurt Tom Masich any more had they graffitied his own house. Instead it was the house the Tom built - Masich Stadium - that got the wrong end of a spray can, this weekend.
The problem had already been building. For the past month, said Masich, a few illicit icons had been scrawled on the walls of the city's track and field headquarters. He is retired from active duty with the Prince George Track and Field Club (PGTFC) but even in winter he still spends a lot of time at his second home. What met his eyes on Sunday morning was a shock.
"The stuff that I confronted this morning seemed really fresh and there were all the tracks in the fresh snow," he said. "It's astounding. I went down there this morning and I have a feeling most of it happened last night [overnight Saturday]."
PGTFC president Brian Martinson said graffiti and other vandalism is an ongoing issue at the building, but "this is the worst I've ever seen it."
He has not been in contact with anyone from the City of Prince George but he knows from past experience that this is going to be a big bill to pay.
"I think generally they [city workers] just wait until spring and then paint it all over at once. There's quite a few layers of paint back there by now," he said. "The paint was one thing, but they were trying to bash in a door to the timing booth, too. The city has put double locks on most of the doors over the years for that very reason. They didn't get in, and there is absolutely nothing in there anyway so I don't know why they bother."
The track club might have to also replace one of their own signs that got sprayed on, as well as the damage to municipal property.
Perhaps worst of all, said Masich, is what was painted on the walls.
It's really plastered with a lot of derogatory terms, racial slurs, swastikas and everything," he said. "It's just ridiculous. Its really disturbing that we have this brainless insanity in our society, people destroying a facility put there for their own benefit. I was born in that swastika time, and that stuff was very scary then and it is very scary now."
Some references to Kelly Road football were also emblazoned, so Masich hopes police start there with their investigation. The racial and neo-Nazi overtones were the reason he called the RCMP. Vandalism is one thing, he said, but terms of hate can't be discounted, he said.
Comments from the City of Prince George and the RCMP were not available by press time.
