Hamilton police are investigating after a break-in at the Ancaster Little League clubhouse left the space in disarray, with sinks and toilets ripped out and disturbing homophobic and racist graffiti scrawled on walls.

Organization president Jake Parkhill said he showed up at the Jerseyville Road ballpark bathroom Sunday to find a sink pulled off the wall and feces in the toilet after getting a text message from the groundskeeper.

But when he went back to the park the following day, the place had been vandalized again overnight. He said the door and the lock had been busted in and the urinal, another sink and toilet were smashed in. Garbage was strewn about the place.

Hateful and violent graffiti, including swastikas and slurs against the LGBTQ and black communities, covered the walls, along with the tag "L9K" written in bingo dabber, which Parkhill believes is referencing the start of a nearby postal code.

While the clubhouse bathroom, which is in a secluded area, was also vandalized last year, there was not racist and homophobic graffiti that time, Parkhill said.

Ancaster Little League is six weeks out from its opening day, and Parkhill said he hopes the vandalism does not put a damper on the season launch.

"I'm disappointed more than anything," Parkhill said Tuesday. "Our big thing is we want to provide a great experience for the kids of Ancaster to come play baseball."

While he does not yet have a tally for the cost of repairs, he expects it could reach as high as $10,000 after the cost of plumbing fixtures and door repairs are taken into account.

If so, the cost would make up just under 10 per cent of Ancaster Little League's annual operating budget, Parkhill said.

The group is responsible for caring for the grounds at the park, uniforms and umpires, he said.

"Every dollar that we put out for this is money that we can't put out towards our baseball programs," he said.

Hamilton Police Service's hate crime unit will be investigating given the hate/bias graffiti, said spokesperson Const. Lorraine Edwards.

Police were on scene, taking photographs and documenting evidence, but they don't yet have any suspects.

Given the site does not have an alarm system and there is no nearby video surveillance footage, finding the culprits will likely be difficult, she said.

Hamilton police's 2017 year-end report on hate crime, which was recently presented to the police services board, revealed that graffitied swastikas are the most common form of hate-related crime in Hamilton.

Most of them are likely created by youth who don't fully understand the significance of the hate symbol, hate crime unit head Det. Paul Corrigan said at the time.

He also said the most-targeted group last year was the black community, and the second most prevalent form of hate incident is racial slurs targeting members of that community.

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The police protocol for investigating political, hateful or gang-related graffiti includes sending a sergeant to the scene along with the forensics unit to take photos.

npaddon@thespec.com

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