Skip to content

Break-in leaves football club with £20,000 bill

Gavin KermackKidderminster
Gavin Kermack / BBC An elderly man with short grey hair and sunglasses, wearing a red sweater under a dark blue and grey fleece. He is standing in front of a blue shipping-style container.Gavin Kermack / BBC
Club chairman Derek Senior said the burglary had brought him to tears

Players and volunteers at a youth football club say they are "heartbroken" after a break-in which saw an estimated £20,000 worth of equipment taken.

A John Deere riding lawnmower that the club bought just a year ago, canisters of diesel and food and drink were taken from locked containers at Mostyn Rangers FC in Kidderminster.

The club's chairman Derek Senior said he was "full of tears" when he arrived at the ground and realised what had happened.

"I arrived full of beans because I was going to cut the field," he said. "I can't really talk about it a lot, because I'll just lose it."

Gavin Kermack / BBC A bald man wearing a striped t-shirt under a grey jacket. He is standing in front of a container like the one in the above picture. It is open and bottles of water and miscellaneous equipment are inside.Gavin Kermack / BBC
Vice-chairman Steve Fox said raising the money to replace the stolen goods was a huge challenge

Vice-chairman Steve Fox said he was "very, very upset" when he saw what had happened.

"We ain't got 10 pence to spare, never mind 20 grand," he said.

Fox added that "every single penny" the club has comes from players' families and friends, as well as occasional fundraisers.

"But to raise 20 grand, it's a hell of a job to do."

Mostyn Rangers FC A brown and a blue shipping-style container on a patch of grass next to a dirt path. Boxes and broken crates are strewn across the path.Mostyn Rangers FC
Two containers at the club were targeted last week

Alan Yenson, assistant manager of the under-12s team, said it was "heartbreaking" to see what had happened.

"We do this for the kids, we're not doing it for our own enjoyment," he said.

Gavin Kermack / BBC A man wearing a black and red football training top, standing in front of a blue shipping-style container. He has short dark brown hair and a brown-blonde beard.Gavin Kermack / BBC
Under-12s assistant manager Alan Yenson has set up a fundraiser for the club

Yenson has started a crowdfunding page in the hope of raising enough money to repair the damage.

"The response from people I've never heard of, and people we know - I think within 48 hours we'd raised £2,500," he said. "Obviously there's still a really long way to go.

"We've just got to hope that there are other generous people in the local area that will chip in and will support us."

Gavin Kermack / BBC Four young boys, one aged around 7 or 8 and the others between 11 and 13, wearing black and red football training tops and looking at the camera.Gavin Kermack / BBC
Under-8s player Jessie and under-12s Casey, Zac and Lucas said they "couldn't believe" what had happened

One of the under-12s players, Casey, said the club meant "everything" to him.

"I was like, there's no way that actually happened," he said. "It was just a big shock really."

"It's been just heartbreaking," added his teammate, Zac.

In a statement, West Mercia Police said: "We received a report on Monday 23 March of a burglary at the playing fields off Lea Castle Drive in Kidderminster.

"An investigation is on-going."

Follow BBC Hereford & Worcester on BBC Sounds, Facebook, X and Instagram.

More on this story