Pool Party Crashers in G.F. - Valley News Live - KVLY/KXJB - Fargo/Grand Forks

Nearly a half dozen families in Grand Forks are having to cancel their pool parties this weekend. That's after someone slashed the sides of their above ground swimming pools. All of the damaged pools were in the same general area between North Washington Street, North Columbia Road, and just North of University Avenue. Valley News Live talked to a family about how the thoughtless act is really costing them.

"In this area we're all families for the most part. At any time there's probably six to ten people in the pool. Little kids in the pool having a grand ole time," says Nathan Hanson who lives on the block hit with the vandalism.

It's a nice neighborhood though. A lot of young kids roam from back yard to backyard, hitting the pool parties along the way. But recently one of the pool parties was put on hold. Hanson explains, "a week and a half ago I came out about 9 o'clock in the morning and sure enough the pool was slashed to pieces."

So Hanson did what most dads would do, he fixed the problem and bought his daughter a new one. But that wasn't the end of it, "not four or five days later they destroyed that one too. So two pools in a week and a half."

They're not cheap either. Hanson has spent nearly 250 dollars on pools since then. Today he's got pool number three in his trunk, but he's just not sure whether he should break it out yet. Because no one in the neighborhood is sure the pool party crashers are done yet.

"It's really kind of a shame I really hope they catch these guys it's been kinda a surge of the neighborhood. A lot of pools have been destroyed from what I understand and that's really kind of a shame," says Hanson.

Because after all, whoever is doing the pool slashing, a total of five pools in just two weeks, Hanson says it's the kids that pay. "I wish they would put more thought into the complete destruction of somebody else's pool and just think about what it's going to do for the kids. I mean people use that everyday."

The culprit could be facing a felony if the damaged pools add up to more than 500 dollars in damage, which they likely will.