BOAT CLUB’S VAN STOLEN
IT IS BELIEVED CULPRITS ‘HOTWIRED’ THE DISTINCTIVE RED VEHICLE AND DROVE IT THROUGH CLUB’S SECURITY GATES
ROWERS have been dealt a bitter blow when thieves stole their van leaving their plans to start competing again after Covid restrictions in tatters.
The distinctive red Ford Transit van, with the club’s name printed on the back and sides, belonging to the Burton Leander Rowing Club was parked up in the car park of the club in Stapenhill Road when thieves snatched it some time between 8pm on Tuesday, April 6, and noon on Wednesday, April 7.
Club captain Adam Brown said the van is used to tow the boats to rowing regattas where club members compete. The rowers range from 11 to 80 years old and the dedicated bunch usually travel across the country using the van.
He issued an appeal in a bid to catch the thieves, saying the club does not have the funds to buy another van.
He said: “It’s quite annoying to be honest and it’s disappointing that someone has chosen us to target. When people do this it unfortunately makes us more conscious of security and things like that.
“With the current economic climate, I expect that people are a bit more desperate to do this sort of thing but everyone else is in the same boat. It doesn’t help anyone else in the long run to do this sort of thing.
“I would ask them to think of the impact it will cause on people in the local community and consider doing the right thing and returning it.
“It puts us in a very difficult position if we can’t sort something out as we haven’t got the funds to go out and buy another one just like that.
“It will mean that it will not allow us to go to competitions and other events unless we can borrow one from someone in the community, as we’re in a difficult position.”
Mr Brown, who has been the captain for three years, left the club base on Tuesday evening after locking up and the van was found to be missing on Wednesday afternoon. However, one of the members of the club said they saw it being driving along Wetmore Road, in Burton, that same evening.
This has led Mr Brown to believe that it was only 10 or 15 minutes after he had left the site that the theft happened. He believes thieves could have broken the window to “hotwire” the van, or start it without a key. They drove through the club gates, snapping the lock in the process, he said
The club has only been back in action for a couple of weeks as coronavirus lockdown restrictions began to ease and it was hoped that, depending on government advice, they could start competitions again in May, but the theft has put that in doubt.
A spokesman for Staffordshire Police said: “Officers were notified of a reported van theft from a sports club on Stapenhill Road, Burton, sometime between 8pm on Tuesday, April 6, and midday on Wednesday, April 7.
“Enquiries, including the assessment of local CCTV is under way. Anyone with any information should message Staffordshire Police on Facebook or Twitter quoting incident number 106 of April 8, call 101 or alternatively contact Crimestoppers anonymously on 0800 555 111.”
The Burton Leander Rowing Club, originally titled The Leander Boat Club, was formed in 1847 and is known as one of the oldest established rowing clubs in the UK, the club has said.