AM hosts are lashing out at "scum" vandals who took to a war memorial plaque in Hawke's Bay.
A war memorial at Hātuma, near Waipukurau, was damaged on Friday night in what the RSA has described as "a senseless act of vandalism", assumed to have been committed with a hammer or similar weapon.
It comes just ahead of ANZAC Day.
AM host Lloyd Burr, Amanda Gillies and Michael O'Keeffe shared their disgust at the act on Monday.
"They are thick, they are scum, they are dickheads, they are idiots and I tell you what, a lot of people will want to get a hold of them before they hand them over to the police," Gillies said.
"I just think the karma train will probably catch up with them," Burr added. "Because why would you do that? I just don't understand what the motivation is for someone.
"War is hell, absolute hell, and these were young men that went and died at the prime of their lives and they've got a memorial that honours what they did, that sacrifice that they gave, that they made, and now someone's just taken a hammer (to it)."
Burr asked if it was ignorance fuelling the vandalism attack.
O'Keffee said he presumed it was young people involved in the crime who "actually don't appreciate what those people did for their families, for our families, for our country".
Gillies added it was "heartbreaking".
"It's ignorance and they've got no idea of the history," she said. "Maybe if they're 18-year-olds and having no idea that the 18-year-olds who went to war and fought for our freedom and many didn't come home, obviously, I just think it's no, just the no."
Viewers wrote in too fuming at the crime.
One disappointed New Zealander told AM the vandals were "low-lives".
Another viewer called it "absolutely disgraceful behaviour".
In response to Burr's hell comparison, one person wrote in: "War isn't hell, war is war and hell is hell and of these two, war is a lot worse."
The feedback came after an interview on the show with RSA president for the Wairarapa, Hawke's Bay and East Coast districts Peter Jackson.
Watch the full interview in the video above.
