On Friday, there was a man who was arrested on suspicion of felony vandalism after he was seen driving his Ford Bronco onto the field at Petco Park. He was doing donuts that tore up the outfield section of the park on Friday morning, where the incident was seen by grounds crew members of the San Diego Padres and also caught on video.
Petco Park’s playing surface was completely torn up from the donuts
Fortunately for the San Diego Padres, the outfield surface was completely torn up at Petco Park before the man decided to do donuts on it. Despite the MLB lockout, the Padres are prepping the stadium for the regular season after they held monster truck rallies and dirt bike races in the stadium last month, according to the San Diego Union-Tribune.
But that doesn’t mean that the playing surface didn’t get damaged from the Ford Bronco, which weighs about two tons.
The driver entered Petco Park from the left field entrance by the Western Metal Supply company. Within a minute of him entering, the Padres grounds crew blocked the entrance (which was also the only exit) with a forklift.
Ryan Carlson, who recorded the video above, told the Union-Tribune that he was in his office in the right field area of Petco Park when he saw this so he started recording after a few seconds.
He explained what happened when the grounds crew blocked the driver in.
“After about a minute, he came to a stop, and a bunch of the grounds crew guys made their way to the car and did like a citizens’ arrest,” Carlson to the Union-Tribune via phone on Friday. “It happened peacefully, wasn’t aggressive, at least as far as I saw. They walked him over and sat him down.”
As of this publication, the name of the driver is still unknown and how he was even able to access the stadium, let alone have a clear entrance to get on to the field also remains a mystery.