All Steffen
Police in the northeast Iowa town of Dyersville say they’re talking to a “person of interest” in connection with the damage to the iconic Field of Dreams movie set.
On Monday night, someone drove a vehicle across the popular tourist attraction, leaving deep tire tracks all over the baseball diamond. Groundskeeper Al Steffen told KCRG-TV the recent warm temperatures and rain intensified the damage.
Ruts on the Field of Dreams.
“These ruts are four inches deep,” Steffen said. “They couldn’t have gone onto the field at a worse time.” In a new release, police said they “expect to have further information on the case” early next week. One of more memorable lines from the 1989 movie was delivered by James Earl Jones, as he predicted “people will come to Iowa” to see the baseball park surrounded by corn fields.
Steffen is concerned about the possibility of new security measures at the movie site – such as locked gates to keep people out after business hours. “People come from so many miles and then all of the sudden they get here and they can’t get in? I mean, we don’t want to do that,” Steffen said. Repairs to the ball diamond will be expensive, especially if the sprinkler system was smashed. Steffen said he’ll wait for the ground to thaw before investigating further. He’ll be doing all of the repair work without the help of insurance.
“First thing I did was call the insurance agent,” Steffen told KCRG. “No, there’s no coverage. It’s just on the buildings.” A Go Fund Me account was set up to help pay for repairs and security improvements to the field. The $15,000 goal was reached in just over one day.