CCTV catches sports club thieves despite recording equipment being stolen

SECURITY at a Sway sports facility will be reviewed after thieves broke into a series of buildings during what appears to be a planned raid.

Armed with bolt cutters and other tools three or four people targeted Jubilee Field in Station Road at around 10.15pm on Friday night, getting into the cricket club’s pavilion and sheds, as well as the parish council’s garage and a storage facility.

They took garden items, including a strimmer and a leaf blower, as well as a set of new Hampshire Cricket League balls and PPE equipment from the cricket club. They also took CCTV equipment which was recording them and wrenched open an empty safe.

The thieves moved on to the parish council facilities which they searched, but left around 13 minutes later after finding nothing of value.

Parish council chairman Cllr Stephen Tarling said: “The footage shows there were three or four of them and these were not youthful vandals but look more like prepared burglars; they were tooled up with bolt croppers and the like.”

Stressing there were few items of value in any of the buildings, Cllr Tarling said an alarm had sounded and the CCTV had been taken.

“We’ll do a review as a matter of course when we meet at our next amenities committee meeting and see if anything can be improved or should be looked at again,” Cllr Tarling confirmed.

“We really wanted to say something [publicly] as a warning, since I understand there have been a number of incidents locally of people breaking in to outbuildings and taking pieces of equipment that are expensive, easily portable and easy to sell.

“There’s nothing of value really in any of these buildings; the cricket club doesn’t hold cash overnight and nor does the parish council.”