A Rutherford family had their trampoline torched by heartless vandals on the weekend.
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Alyssa Bryson and her partner Ken Barber were at home on Saturday night when at 9.40pm their dogs started barking.
When they rushed outside they found that their trampoline was alight.
“I couldn’t believe it,” Ms Bryson said. “If we didn’t have the dogs we wouldn’t have even known.”
Mr Barber grabbed the hose and his quick-thinking stopped the fire from spreading to the family home, but the trampoline was destroyed.
“My seven-year-old Zane was absolutely shattered,” she said.
“I have two boys and [neither would] sleep in their own beds last night because they were scared.
“Who would do that to a child’s trampoline?”
Ms Bryson said her three-year-old son Brayth was too young to understand what had happened and blamed the destruction on monsters in the backyard.
She said his evaluation was not too far off because she could not understand why anyone would target a child’s trampoline.
The family’s backyard is surrounded by other blocks, which means the culprits had to access their garden via another property.
“When we went out and investigated we could smell kerosene and we could see footprints in the grass of a neighbour’s property,” she said.
“We had the trampoline on the other side of the yard, but on Saturday afternoon we moved it.
“It was a gift from Santa.”
The family contacted the police, but wanted to warn neighbours and other Rutherford residents of the incident so they could be alert.
“It is just stupidity,” she said.
“I just think people need to be warned in case it happens again.”
Anyone with information is encouraged to phone Crime Stoppers on 1800 333 000.