Act of vandalism with a car

Speeding “lawn pest” destroys sports pitches

It was not only on this soccer pitch that a hooligan in the Innviertel municipality of Waldzell left some deep tracks with his car.(Bild: SV Waldzell)

Drivers and lawns - a well-known problem that exists everywhere. But usually not in the same form as recently in the Innviertel region. Where a horsepower hooligan drove a kind of rally with a car on an unfenced sports facility, partially destroying two soccer pitches in the process . . .  

"We are horrified," says Josef Helm. The 41-year-old is the deputy chairman of SV Waldzell, where the future ski jumping superstar Andi Goldberger once played. Instead of the most famous son of the community of 2,300, however, a horsepower vandal has now left his mark on Waldzell. And on the pitch of the sports facility.

"The madman drifted 15 to 20 laps with a car on the training pitch and in one half of the pitch," says Helm, who has reported the act of vandalism on the unfenced sports facility, even though the club can only assess the economic damage as soon as the snow has melted, according to the official.

The madman drifted 15 to 20 laps with a car on the training pitch and in one half of the pitch.

SV-Waldzell-Funktionär Josef Helm

Reminder of Eferding and Luftenberg
But the fact is that there have been similar speeding "turf pests" elsewhere in Upper Austria for years: In Eferding in 2010, unknown persons had driven a car around a sports field on Halloween night. And in Luftenberg, the golf course has been the victim of car hooligans several times. In 2022, two even destroyed parts of the turf at the same time.