At Lake Wörthersee

A Halloween prank costs the municipality a lot

An unusual picture: the fountain at the entrance to Pörtschach has been dyed poison green.(Bild: Marcel Tratnik)

Unknown persons dyed fountains in Pörtschach poison green. The same perpetrators may have struck once before. The municipality now has to pay for cleaning costs.

Unknown persons caused a stir in the Wörthersee community of Pörtschach on Saturday morning with a supposedly belated Halloween prank. They dyed the fountain at the eastern entrance to the village poisonous green.

Regional chemist was called in
"We only noticed it ourselves on Saturday morning," says Mayor Silvia Häusl-Benz. And the local authority immediately called the state chemist. They are now investigating whether it is an environmentally harmful substance or just conventional food coloring.

But the poisonous green fountain is not an isolated case in Pörtschach. Only in the summer months, the Mühlbach stream in the town center was dyed the same color. "At the time, it was a harmless substance," said the mayor in an interview with the "Krone" newspaper, who is annoyed by this act of vandalism. After all, the fountain is municipal property and now has to be cleaned. "This results in unnecessary costs that must now be borne by all citizens of the municipality."

It's a shame that people don't take into account the fact that such actions incur costs that have to be borne by everyone.

Silvia Häusl-Benz, Bürgermeisterin von Pörtschach

Häusl-Benz therefore has an appeal to the perpetrators: "Municipal property should be treated in the same way as your own belongings at home!"