For years, a handmade lifeguard-style chair has stood like a quirky sentinel at the Cape May Avenue cul-de-sac in Ocean Beach, a kind of unofficial welcome sign for neighbors and beach regulars. On Monday, that landmark was chopped to pieces, neighbors say, apparently by someone wielding a hatchet. The oversized seat, recovered and rebuilt by residents over roughly 15 years, is now a pile of splintered wood, and the community is already plotting its comeback. Caretakers have launched a fundraiser and say they plan to rebuild the chair stronger than before, with reinforced anchoring so it cannot easily wash away or be carried off again.
Neighborhood fixture with a storied past
According to longtime caretakers, the chair’s story started about 15 years ago, when it was rescued from a Pacific Beach construction job after being found sitting poolside. Since then, it has been patched, repaired, and reimagined by probably 20 or more different neighbors, evolving into a well-loved neighborhood fixture.
On Monday night, that history was abruptly interrupted. A neighbor reported that at approximately 9:30 PM, a man drove to the end of the block, stepped out of his vehicle carrying a hatchet, and proceeded to hack the chair to bits. “This is a sad day for the Ocean Beach community,” Cornelius Gregg Harris said. The incident was described in detail by the Times of San Diego.
Attack and fundraising
Neighbors say the timing could not have been worse. The chair had just been rebuilt after a storm and had even been recovered after once being left to wash out to sea, only to be painstakingly brought back and restored. The overnight attack undid that work in a matter of minutes, organizers say.
In response, Harris has organized a restoration fundraiser to cover materials and labor for a sturdier replacement. The fundraiser page outlines the extent of the damage and the group’s plan for a more secure, longer-lasting version of the chair, and it is currently accepting contributions through GoFundMe.
How neighbors plan to keep it safe
Residents say they are determined that the next version of the chair will be harder to steal and withstand storms better. They have already purchased cinder blocks and heavy chains with plans to anchor the rebuilt structure in four- to six-foot holes and use sturdier materials throughout.
One caretaker said he has personally stopped people from trying to take the chair three times, a sign of how much the neighborhood treats it as a shared public fixture rather than a disposable prop. Community members say the reconstruction will be a team effort and insist that the spirit behind the chair, viewed as a small but meaningful symbol of Ocean Beach’s communal culture, will easily outlast one act of vandalism, as reported by the Times of San Diego.
