Tiverton Police investigating after beach picnic benches used as firewood

TIVERTON, R.I. (WLNE) – Tiverton Police are investigating an incident at one of the city’s beaches after someone destroyed the new picnic benches.

According to police, it happened at Fogland Beach sometime this weekend.

The Tiverton Rec Department posted about it on Facebook Sunday afternoon saying, “At Fogland Beach last night, someone decided to utilize the newly replaced picnic benches as firewood. The incident has been reported to the Tiverton Police who are investigating. We encourage anyone who has information about the responsible individual(s) to come forward.”

Police shared the post shortly after.  Images show the city’s brand new picnic benches burned to rubble after they believe someone used it as firewood.

Police are now investigating and looking for the person responsible. They also say they are increasing patrols and adding new security cameras at the beach following the incident.

“It’s frustrating,” Joseph Perry, Tiverton Town Councilor said. “Some people have no respect for property, all we’re trying to do is make it so it’s feasible for people to come here and enjoy the beach.”

Councilman Perry serves as liaison of the recreation committee. He led the effort to revamp the area after noticing parts of the area looked run down.

“We love the town and we wanted to give back to the community and people were talking about how beautiful the beach was but there was really no place they could sit,” Perry said.

He, along with several volunteers from the community spent the weekend building 26 tables to later find out someone set one on fire.

“We noticed one of the tables was destroyed. Someone had taken the wood and made a camp fire out of the wood. It just bothered us.”

Perry says while he doesn’t think it was malicious, this isn’t the first crime to happen in the area.

“The bath houses have been destroyed, we used to have port-o-john’s here, and they were tipped over. There’s been a lot of damage because after a certain time at night, there’s really no security here at all.”

Now he hopes safety measures like security cameras and night patrols could make the area safer for families this summer.

Anyone with information is asked to contact Officer Nicholas Jamrog at (401) 625-6716 or njamrog@tivertonpoliceri.com.