CCTV images showing three young vandals at Broughty Ferry lifeboat station are as predictable as they are depressing.
The youths scrambled over security fencing before tampering with equipment.
Volunteers had to fix damage to ropes on the lifeboat in order to make it safe to launch.
It comes as police are promising more patrols and visits to local schools following a spate of vandalism across the town.
Every year as the evenings begin to draw out there is a spike in anti-social behaviour.
In this instance, the damage could have had much wider consequences than the three vandals probably ever imagined.
Had the Broughty Ferry lifeboat been needed by a person in distress while repairs to equipment were being carried out, their actions could have been much more serious.
As it is, the time, money and efforts of the volunteer crew who put their own lives on the line to save others has been exhausted for no good reason.
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We hope the mindless perpetrators come to regret their actions.
But society must do better at providing young people with constructive things to do when they have too much time on their hands.
Options do exist. But they must be attractive and accessible to young people if such anti-social behaviour is to be tackled long term.
