What is wrong with people?

Last night we had just finished dinner when I got a text message from at work Maria.  She said someone had told her that the playground at the school was on fire.  I text texted?text'd? how do you spell that? her back that I'd go up and check it out.

We live two blocks from the school where I work.  I had just gotten off work a little after 5:45, gone to pick up some BBQ and come home to eat.  We didn't hear any sirens. The firetrucks usually come through the neighborhood to get to the school.

A few weeks ago we heard them when some kids tried to set a large trash can on fire under the pavilion near the back of the school.  Then they did it again last week.  They wanted to try skateboarding off a picnic table and over the burning trashcan.  Last week they managed to burn the three foot tall trash can down to about half it's size.

But last night was different.  It wasn't the trash or a grass fire as I was expecting to see.  It was the play structure!

See the piles of melted plastic on the ground? That's what is left of things like slides and climbing thingys.  The fire was so hot that it melted the underside of the canopy and with the wind blowing as hard as it was yesterday, the melting plastic was blown out in long strands and sheets like curtains.  The wood chips under the structure are totally burned up to the dirt below.  By law they are supposed to be 3 inches deep to cushion a child's fall.  They were at least an inch and a half, seeing as it was the end of the school year.  All that's left is the bare charred ground.

This happened between 6:00 and 6:45 PM. I had parked in the front of the building yesterday afternoon or perhaps I would have seen the person who did this.  I may have recognized him sitting in his vehicle.  Yes... it was an adult! Not the kids playing with lighters.  The kids wouldn't want to do this... they liked hanging out on this thing after school and on weekends.  Some of the teens will be so disappointed that their Make-Out spot has been destroyed.

No, we have video of the person who did this.  Love those security cameras... to a certain extent.  I called the Security Office for DP new principal after he came up to the school.  He talked to one of the Monitors in the control room.  He said that the guy walked back and forth several times then stopped and watched to make sure the fire was started and then got in his vehicle and drove away.  He positioned himself just right so that we couldn't get a view of his license plates....

I love CSI.... and I love a good mystery.  So I've been thinking today.  I wonder this is where Jolea would say "what do you wonder Wonder Cat?" if we watched the video from the camera on the back of the building could we see if he turned right or left when he exited the parking lot?   If he turned right we're SOL.  But if he turned left.... we could be in luck.  Then we could watch the video from the East side and maybe see him driving toward Main Street.  Then once on Main Street we could watch the video from the front of the building to see if he sat across the street at the burger place to watch his handy-work.   If we couldn't zoom in to see his plates from there then maybe we could see which way he went and have the city access the cameras on the next traffic light!!!!   It's brilliant.

I just hope the fire investigator has thought of this and I don't have to go tell him how to do his job.  I'm already thinking of questions for the police to ask him. 
"Why were you hanging out on a school yard?"
"Did you bring your kids to play?"
"NO?" Hmmm that's weird.
"Did you start the fire?"
"With a cigarette?"
"Why didn't you put it out?"
"Was it spontaneous combustion?"
"Why didn't you put it out?"
"Why didn't you call the fire department?"
"You did?"
"Why didn't you wait for them?"  Yeah, I've been thinking about this today.  They the law had better not blow this off like they usually do around here.  Sometimes they have such a small town mentality.  "Let's not make a big deal about it and it will never happen again."   And heaven forbid anything is ever in the newspaper about it.

The saddest thing is that our school is hosting Summer School this year.  Now the kids have no where to play for the next 3 weeks.  Summer School was by invitation, if you didn't want your kid to go, you didn't have to send them.  There was no reason to burn the playground to the ground.