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During the early hours of Sunday 18 Oct Poole RNLI lifeboat station
was broken into and ransacked by thieves.
Volunteers arrived at the station on Poole Quay on Monday morning
to find the place in “total chaos” the doors had been
smashed open with, locked drawer’s wrenched open and the contents
discarded over the floor. Coxswain Jonathan Clark said: “It
sickens you to see the mess.
“Someone has totally wrecked our station looking for a safe
or something. There is no money on the site and nothing of value,
just essential equipment that we use to do our job. It’s just
mindless.” “They’ve caused a lot of damage,”
added Mr Clark. “I can’t see anything obvious missing
– but they’ve trashed the station. over the next few
months when we get the money to do it we’ll replace and repair
the damage.”
He said the boats were not affected and the crews removed their
kit and stored it on the boats while police investigated so they
could still attend emergencies. Jonathan added: “I just can’t
believe someone could do that. Everything in that station is for
charity, everything there is thanks to people raising money. We
get no funding from anywhere else – any repairs or replacement
is all going to come from pennies in the pot. It’s disgusting.
“As a charity, money is very tight at the moment. This just
doesn’t help things. But it’s not going to affect us
doing our job – it just makes it awkward.”
A Dorset Police spokesman said: “We would urge anybody who
saw or heard anything suspicious or unusual in the vicinity of the
lifeboat station in Poole Quay overnight to get in touch.”
Anyone with information can call PC Aaron Harvey on 01202 22 222.
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