In the early hours of Wednesday the 17th of May, thieves broke in to the Bedworth Rugby Club in Coventry and made off with thousands of pounds worth of equipment. Then, instead of fleeing in a getaway car, they stole the club’s ride on lawn mowers and drove off into the night. To add insult to injury, a neighbour saw the thieves joyriding down the road on the mowers and failed to call the police.
For Mick Slater, chairman of Bedworth Rugby Club, the news of the burglary came as a shock and he said he felt sick upon hearing about the incident. Slater said that they were extremely disappointed, as the club barely breaks even and they’d never be able to replace their equipment and the mowers. They were only able to scrape funds together for the mowers every few years, and one was almost brand new.
A Clean Break In
It seems that the thieves knew exactly what they were doing, as no damage was done to the club’s storage container despite it being emptied in its entirety. Mr Slater said that the locks had been drilled off and the container emptied. In addition to all the equipment, two pedal mowers and two sit on mowers were stolen, totalling up to a loss of around £8,000.
Sadly, because the equipment was stolen from a container, the club cannot claim from insurance. For the foreseeable future, practising teams will have to rely on rugby drill video tutorials such as those available at https://www.sportplan.net/drills/Rugby/ and make do without any equipment.
More Worries and Woes
The robbery is not just the clubs only worry, as at present they are waiting to see whether their lease will be renewed.
They are not too sure if they will be able to stay on in their current home, as a new lease had been offered but included a hefty price hike. Should they not be able to afford the lease, they’ll be forced to move to St Nicholas Chamberlaine School and bid Rectory Fields farewell. Being left in limbo also saw the club leave the grass uncut, and now the loss of the mowers adds to their woes.
Police are on the lookout for the two thieves and the club is hoping their equipment will be returned to them.