UPPER EAST SIDE, Manhattan (WABC) — The owner of a preschool on the Upper East Side says her students are devastated after a vandal destroyed the sidewalk corn garden they had been caring for since April.<\/p>\n
The students from Mis Amiguitos Spanish Montessori School were just weeks away from harvesting the corn, when surveillance cameras captured a man uproot the crop on Monday and toss them in the trash.<\/p>\n
“Some of my students began to cry, couldn’t understand why someone would do this,” said Mily Caballero, the CEO and owner of the school.<\/p>\n
The incident happened around noon on Sunday. The NYPD is investigating it as an act of criminal mischief.<\/p>\n
Caballero says this is not the first attack on the garden and that someone stole $1,000 worth of guard rails the school brought to protect the space. Flowers have also been squashed.<\/p>\n
“We feel targeted at this point for sure,” she says.<\/p>\n
This is, however, the first time Caballero has complained to police.<\/p>\n
“This is a lesson for them to just keep going – lif your head up and keep going,” Caballero added.<\/p>\n
The garden has been an integral part of the Montessori program.<\/p>\n
“We accidentally grew pumpkins at Halloween, thinking nothing of it,” Caballero says, “by the summer we had pumpkins and that’s how our journey started. We did sunflowers for a few years, this year corn.”<\/p>\n
The plot has turned heads since it bloomed after the COVID pandemic.<\/p>\n
As police continue their search for the suspect, Caballero purchased surveillance cameras hoping to deter any future acts of vandalism.<\/p>\n
The NYC Parks Department says this week it helped restore the pit and added some mulch, sprouting renewed joy in these blooming gardeners.<\/p>\n
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