Seventeen trampolines at Airodrome Trampoline Park in Altona North have been slashed.
Duty manager Daniel Bampton said the vandalism in the Big Green Trampolines section of the Dohertys Road centre overnight on Tuesday last week seemed designed to go undetected.
“They were slashed in hard-to-see areas,” he said. “We’ve had slashings done to our trampolines before in more obvious areas.
“This time, whoever’s done it, they’ve tried to be a bit sneakier. The slashings were done closer to the edges of the trampolines. It was difficult to notice at first. If we didn’t notice, it could have been dangerous.”
Centre owner Michael Nicholls said that during school holidays there were usually 100-plus children jumping on the trampolines every hour.
“I can’t see why they would have done it in the manner that they did without an intent to hide it,” he said.
“If we hadn’t done the diligent checks in the morning, there’s a very real probability that someone would have potentially gone through.
“It’s targeted at young kids … apart from the damage to the business, you just wonder about human nature.”
The perpetrator appears to have gone under the trampolines to avoid detection by security cameras. It is believed they may have entered from an external door to another area of the Westgate Sports and Leisure Complex, in which the centre is located.
