DENVER — People are blowing up toilets in parks across Denver -- and not because they just ate gas station sushi.
Vandals are literally setting off explosives in park bathrooms. People have stolen copper wiring, and others have set fire to portable toilets.
Washington Park has been among the hardest hit, Parks and Recreation Deputy Director Scott Gilmore said.
"The toilets have been blown up. Literally blown up. Four times," he said.
Half of the restrooms in parks across the city are out of commission. The rest are only open until 2 p.m. in an effort to cut down on vandalism.
"I think over the last four to five years things have gotten to be worse," Gilmore said. "That is not just simple vandalism. That is actually pure destruction."
He said one culprit could be social media trends encouraging explosive displays of portable toilet pandemonium.
The destruction has left handles hacked off doors, copper pipes stolen from plumbing and fixtures that now need fixing.
"It doesn't hurt them per se because they're doing it for -- I don't know, for their enjoyment, which is weird. But it really impacts everybody else," Gilmore said.
Parks and rec said bathrooms will stay closed until crews can fix all the damage or until they can switch to more hardened fixtures like metal sinks and toilets -- like the ones at the city's James Bible Park.
It's not just permanent bathrooms that have been attacked. Gilmore said more than a dozen portable toilets have been vandalized in the past month or so. Some were lit on fire. One was sawed in half.
The repair costs are starting to add up too, he said.
So for now, locked-down lavatories may be the future at Denver's parks -- and Parks and Recreation knows that stinks.
"It's very, very sad that we're at the state where we have to lock the bathrooms to make sure they're not damaged," Gilmore said.
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