JACKSONVILLE, Fla. — There one day and gone the next.
Growing Together Behavioral Center had just finished installing its playground at its new location on Art Museum Drive.
When the staff came to start the week, all that was left of the playground was the studs in the ground.
“The girls were shocked, a couple of them got here before me and were like, 'Melissa, what are you doing with the playground?'," said Executive Director Melissa Kramer.
Kramer wasn’t sure what her employees were talking about, so she looked back at the playground the school just paid to have installed.
“It was just gone," said Kramer. "I don’t know how you take a 30-foot playground.”
The only clue left behind – strips of pink tape on the surveillance cameras.
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Those cameras show two figures wandering outside near the playground around 3:30 a.m. Monday morning before the tape blocked the view of what happened next.
“They took the swings, they took the slide, the monkey bars," said Kramer. "It’s just gone. It’s so bizarre.”
First Coast News honored Kramer as one of its Twelve Who Care in 2019 for Growing Together’s work with children with autism.
The school is expanding to the new location in St. Nicholas to serve even more students and was preparing to put a fence around the playground this week before it vanished.
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“The kids love and will work for being able to come outside," said Kramer. "If you can sit with me at the table and work with me for five minutes, we’ll go out and swing.”
Kramer filed a report with the Jacksonville Sheriff’s Office, which is now investigating the missing playground as a grand theft, estimating its value is between $5,000-$10,000.
“Something good has to come out of this, and our kids need to swing," said Kramer.
Growing Together just spent $12,000 on mulch for the ground of the new playground, so the team is hoping they can either find the stolen play set or the community will support them in getting a new set so the children will have a place to play when school starts on August 12.
A GoFundMe was set up to help the school replace the playground.