A food charity in Bellport had its property vandalised this week, with paint thrown and nails scattered across its parking lot, News 12 Long Island reported. The Lighthouse Mission, a Suffolk County nonprofit that is used to helping out people in the community, found itself in the position of needing help of its own as it tried to figure out who was responsible for the damage.
According to a post the nonprofit shared on social media, the vandalism happened after the mission closed on Wednesday night. Someone came onto the property and threw paint, as well as scattering nails throughout the parking lot and along the road in front of the building, leaving a hazard across the area that the charity and its visitors depend on every day.
The damage was not discovered until the following morning. When volunteers returned to the site on Thursday, they found the paint and the nails strewn across the lot and the roadway, and realised that the place where they welcome people in need had been targeted during the overnight hours while the mission was closed.
The volunteers then set about putting things right at the site. According to the report, they contacted the police, power washed all of the property, and picked up every single nail by hand to make sure that everything was safe for the people who come to visit, before turning their attention back to the work of the mission.
The scale of what the Lighthouse Mission does underlines why the disruption mattered to the community. The nonprofit feeds more than 2,500 people a week, both at its Bellport headquarters and through mobile food distributions all across Suffolk County, making it a valuable resource for people who rely on it for meals.
News 12 reached out to Suffolk County Police for more information about the case. According to the report, the department was unable to provide an update on the investigation or the incident at this point, leaving open the questions of who carried out the vandalism and why the charity had been singled out.
Despite the setback, those behind the mission struck a defiant note. The nonprofit said that a little vandalism was not going to slow it down from moving forward with its mission, and after clearing up the mess left behind, the volunteers said they were back on their feet and once again focused on serving the community.