INDEPENDENCE, Mo. — Families in Independence enjoy taking advantage of the splash pad at McCoy Park. However, Thursday, the sprayground was closed after city crews received reports it was vandalized.

Latisha McCarver and her little ones love the McCoy Park and splash pad. Her children weren’t able to splash around in the water because of the dangerous mess left behind, glass.

“To know that glass is out here is upsetting,” McCarver said.

Sean Vincent sent FOX4 photos from his morning walk at the park. In the photos he shared, you could see glass bottles and broken glass scattered everywhere. His dog even cut its paw on one of many small shards of glass around the park. In another photo he took, someone left empty cases of beer bottles on top of the gazebo.

The City of Independence had crews out vacuuming all the crevices of the park and splash pad. FOX4 crews even caught some employees on their hands and knees hand-picking shards of glass.

Vandals threw more than 80 glass bottles on the sprayground, according to the city.

The city’s spokesperson sent this statement regarding the vandalism:

“The safety and wellbeing of our park patrons is our top priority. Our crews found signs of vandalism this morning at the McCoy Park sprayground, and immediately began the clean-up process. Unfortunately, vandals used glass and the cleanup process to make this area safe for our young visitors is time consuming. We are working with the Independence Police Department and our Park Patrol to ensure our parks are monitored during the overnight hours, and will review these schedules to see if additional patrols are needed.”

“Again, we want our parks to be safe, welcoming, and beautiful. We are disappointed someone took these actions and are working to resolve it as quickly as possible. We thank our patrons and park neighbors for their patience and for helping report suspicious activity as soon as they see it.”

Brock Hughes who loves to visit the park with his family said this is one of his favorite spots in the city.

“It is really sad to hear but I’m so glad that the city is quickly acting on it and helping to make it safe for my daughter,” he said.

As a precaution, crews cleaning up the glass recommended families wear boat shoes or flip flops if they plan to visit the splash park soon.

The city said it will post on social media when the splash park is safe enough to open back up.