JACKSONVILLE, Fla. — The case of the stolen playground has come to a close, with a happy ending.
Growing Together, a Jacksonville school for children with special needs, opened its new playground after the old playground mysteriously vanished in the middle of the night.
“To this day, just chatting about it, people are like, ‘Why would you steal a playground from a bunch of kids?’ It makes no sense," said Executive Director Melissa Kramer.
Kramer still can’t quite wrap her head around what happened two months ago, when the school’s new playground vanished in the middle of the night, just after it was installed.
“They found some fingerprints on the tape that was put on our cameras, but we never heard anything back," said Kramer.
A Jacksonville Sheriff’s Office spokesperson says the stolen playground investigation was suspended due to a “lack of suspect information.”
Growing Together raised about half of what it needed for a new playground throughout the summer, but wound up starting the school year without a replacement.
Until Ketterer Browne and Associates, a national law office with a branch in Pensacola, saw the story and came to Jacksonville with a $12,000 check in hand to help Growing Together get to the finish line.
“I looked at the center," said Robert Price, an attorney at the firm. "I met the teachers. I saw the kids. We couldn’t be more happy to see community involvement happen like this. The kids needed it. The center is an absolute blessing to the community.”
Growing Together students have hit the ground running on the first full week with the brand new playground installed.
“We couldn’t ask for more," said Kramer. "It’s awesome.”
The new playground is cemented into the ground, with a layer of mulch over that and a six-foot fence all around it, so hopefully ‘stolen playground’ is a one-time issue for Growing Together.