Milestone Systems, the open platform company in IP video management software (VMS), announced that employees at its Beaverton, Oregon facility responded to recent local news coverage regarding vagrancy and vandalism concerns at a Centennial School ball field, in Gresham.

Located in southeast Portland, Centennial Little League had a dangerous situation on their hands. According to news reports, Rob Diesel, with the league, said that over the past year he and his team have found locks broken off its portable bathrooms and harmful, miscellaneous items left inside.

“We found syringes and most recently a full bottle of pills. We’ve found a bicycle stored in there, as well as clothes and blankets,” said Diesel. He believes that transients or homeless people are breaking into the bathrooms. There are several portable bathrooms around the ball field, which are often used by children and their families.

Diesel said police have been involved in the past but the patrols are limited since the field is gated at night.

Milestone Business Development Manager, Matt Fishback, saw the local Portland, Oregon FOX 12 NEWS story regarding the vandalism, security, and safety issues that were plaguing the Centennial Little League organization. Matt took it upon himself to investigate internally to see if Milestone might be able to help Centennial Little League with some free assistance.

“When I first saw the story, I did a web search of Centennial Little League and found that they had additional instances of break-ins,” said Fishback. “And the Little League told us of another recent burglary and damage to the building that didn’t make the news.”

As a way to help address the issues, Fishback brought the situation to the attention of Mike Sherwood, Director of Professional Services at Milestone, who was able to locate, provide and install a small video surveillance system for the league, free of charge.

“Our Milestone Professional Services team grabbed a Bosch FlexiDome camera with infrared illumination that we were no longer using in our test work. We also installed a used Milestone Husky NVR that still works great,” said Fishback. “Mike Sherwood and I went over to Centennial and installed the camera near the concession stand, and showed them how to operate it.”

Diesel said the league is a non-profit and the help from Milestone is greatly appreciated. With some video information, he hopes to work with parents and community members to figure out a way to solve the issue.

The original FOX 12 News feature can be viewed here…