Tuesday, September 16, 2008

the devil's playground

I apologize in advance for the nature of this post but I just wanted to throw out some of my thoughts and my experience and also an invitation for all you to take a careful look at the places your children play. Tonight the weather was cooling down and Logan was full of pent up energy so we thought it would be refreshing to go out to the playground at our apartment complex in Columbia. Logan was climbing up the chains when something caught my eye. It was what appeared to be a condom. It caught me off guard. I kicked it under the woodchips and just as I did, something else caught my eye... a little zip lock bag with spades on it. For the next half hour I walked around the playground to see what else was there and here is what I found.
Condom package #1
Condom package #2
Remains of condom
Found several of these vodka tabs
Baggy number 1. I did a little research and found that it is common for drugs to be given street names. Sometimes the baggies have symbols printed on them as a label for that type of drug. Different types of bags are commonly used by different dealers in order for their products to be differentiated among other drugs and other dealers. So 3 distinct types of bags can mean three distinct drugs or the same type of drug distributed by 3 different dealers. Any way you slice it, scary. All of these bags were out in the open in plain site, I did not have to look hard to find them.
Baggy number 2
number 3
number 4
and last and hopefully least.... an anti theft alarm probably from clothes taken from a Walmart or Target. I am putting these pictures on a disk to give to the apartment management so that they can give them to the Columbia Association and the police. All of this made me sick. I am sad that this sort of stuff is happening out in the open in one place that I would hope would remain safe for my kids to play. I for one am going to pay a little more attention to what happens out there, maybe if we can get the association and the cops involved, the situation will improve or at least those who take part in these activities will be less eager to do so at our playground. Next time you take your kids to the park or the playground, take a good look around and be careful about letting your kids run off by themselves, you never know what they will find.

15 comments:

Annie Mitchell said...

So So true!! Did you see monday's episode of Oprah it is. It shocked me and had me tears. It is sad to see what the world is coming to.

Tam said...

Ugh, that makes me sick. I think I let myself forget how many evils and dangers are around us all the time. Thanks for the reminder to be more vigilant.

Corinne said...

WOW. FRIENDS. I just really would hope things like this would NOT be happening. I really appreciate that you are taking action.

Tracy said...

Gross. That's scary to imagine what is going on where our kids play.

Christie said...

Oh wow. I think you've missed your calling in life. :-) That is quite the investigative report. :-) Good for you for doing something about this.

Anonymous said...

Wow! How our world is changing. Hey Amber email me so I can invite you to our blog, we went private. aryannie8@hotmail.com

Jason & Claire said...

This is just so sad. It makes me sick.

Renee said...

Oh WOW! That was not a pleasant evening at the park - that makes me stomach turn. Hopefully they can take care of the problem!!!!

Renee said...

Oh WOW! That was not a pleasant evening at the park - that makes me stomach turn. Hopefully they can take care of the problem!!!!

Benjamin said...
This comment has been removed by the author.
Benjamin said...

I think some stuff fell out of my pocket, could you put it in a box and mail it to me please. I know a guy who knows a guy, and I need to give him his stuff back. As for the other stuff I think that belongs to the president of Vandelay Industries. Just so you can take it up with him. And the Vodka caps, Spence and I prefer Schmirrnoff. So check with Jason or Kim, they know more about Russian liquor than anyone! HA! I bet I made you guys laugh! Kim, it was a joke. Laugh. Love you guys!

Danielle said...

That makes me sick. I'll definately keep a closer eye on things when I take the boys to a playground. Good job.

Cami said...

Um, that is seriously disgusting. I can't believe you found all that. Insane.

Alyson said...

YUCK!!!!!

Alyson said...

that was Al, not Brad sorry i have some kinks to work out obviously!