Crocker-Amazon Playground is getting hit hard in this ongoing war on Bay Area metal thieves. Recall back in June, some aluminum bleachers were liberated from the recently renovated park to be melted down for scrap by some junkyard tycoon who clearly hates children. Now, a little over a month later, apparently no one is doing a thing to stop the metal thieves who returned to the park to strip out any loose metal — right down to the nuts and bolts.

According to the Chronicle, the park's recreation director Warren Robinson hasn't been following through on his city-paid task of locking the gates every night. A Rec & Parks spokesperson claimed that is because the locks were also broken and vandalized, which leaves the gate wide open for opportunistic metal grabbers.

Anyhow, there's a lot of finger pointing going on now that the renovated playground is getting picked apart. There's no insurance for this kind of thing, so the budget for replacing stolen equipment is basically evaporating. Rec & Parks would like the neighbors to be extra vigilant, as they don't have the funds for extra security (or new locks, apparently). Neighborhood advocates, on the other hand, say the park rangers who are supposed to be making additional rounds never show up except for special events. And all this would be simpler if one guy did his job and locked up at night.

Previously: All Copper and Metal theft coverage on SFist
[Chron]