The concession stand at the baseball field where Mission 66 and Martin Luther King Jr. Boulevard meet has been broken into about eight times in the past three years.

With the latest break-in occurring earlier this week, the city is looking for help to find the culprits.

“It has been an ongoing headache the league has to endure,” Recreation Department director Joe Graves said. “Then the city has to end up trying to pay for everything that is taken time and time again.”

Sometimes the break-ins take the form of vandalism, with lights, locks and doors being torn up. Other times it is burglary, where concessions and equipment have been taken.

In the latest incident, Graves said four dozen new baseballs, 15 gloves, six new bats, two sets of catchers gear, five batting helmets, three sets of game pants, shirts and all the games hats totaling $1,500 were stolen from the building. This has been a major setback for the upcoming baseball season.

“We’re trying to do everything we can to make it nice for those children to play at the facility,” Graves said of the park that hosts baseball, basketball and soccer.

Most of the time the concession stand is hit, but the bathrooms have seen break-ins as well.

“We had to have a steel roof put on the concession because they were cutting through the shingles and going in through the roof,” Graves said.

The break-ins have evolved over time with at one point the crime taken place by someone cutting through the roof to get inside to most recently getting through a large heavy-duty steel lock.

“That type of lock that we had on there, you couldn’t cut with bolt cutters. It had hard case steel spindles on it. You can’t cut through it and we don’t know how they got in unless they had a key,” Graves said.

He believes it has been the same criminals in every incident. North Ward Alderman Michael Mayfield said he also doesn’t believe the perpetrators are random. He thinks whoever it is breaking into the concession area has to know the park and what is going on there.

“We don’t think that it is a stranger,” Mayfield said. “We think its people that are aware of the facility and what we do there and what we keep over there.”

He said multiple security measures have been taken to protect the park but whoever is breaking in is getting around those barriers.

“It seems like everything we do the individuals are finding a way to still find entry into the concessions area and do damage whether it be through vandalism or just outright burglary,” Mayfield said.

He along with others invested in the park are looking for new methods of security and are exploring other options in storage in addition to searching for the offenders.

“It’s very disheartening to know that this has happened probably seven or eight times in about a two or three year span, and we are continuing to spend money to bring that facility up,” Mayfield said.

He hopes this week’s break-in will be the last, but he doesn’t want to get his hopes up. Every time the park is believed to be secured, another break-in occurs. Mayfield hates that the constant disruption impacts the children.

“You can just look at their faces and tell that it bothers them deeply to know that they keep having to endure this,” Mayfield said.

Vicksburg police Chief Walter Armstrong said the park is provided by the city to give kids something to do and a place to go, but with continual crime the park is not able to aid children the way it was intended.

“It’s a shame that someone would do that because that stuff is there to benefit our youth in this community,” Armstrong said.

He said patrols pass the park regularly, but the public help is invaluable.

He said even though those security measures were put in place, the park continues to be targeted. “We are investigating a break-in that occurred at that location,” Armstrong said. “We certainly ask for help from the public.”

Graves hopes the public becomes more aware of what is happening at the park and encourages people to call the Vicksburg Police Department, 601-636-2511, or the city Recreation Department, 601-634-4514, if they see or hear something. Anyone with information about the burglary can also call Central Mississippi Crime Stoppers at 601-355-8477, Armstrong said.

Callers remain anonymous and do not have to testify in court.