"We just don't know why..." Hampshire charity in shock after their youth club broken into
Around 160 young people use the facilities, including a neurodivergent group.
Last updated 11th Jul 2024
A popular youth club in Yateley has been left in shock after being broken into and vandalised.
Eggs and cooking oil have been smashed and thrown around The Tythings, which Vision 4 Youth use to run local youth clubs. The charity believe that it now needs to be professionally cleaned and possibly repainted.
We understand a police investigation is underway to find out what happened.
Abby Roper is from Vision 4 Youth, and explained how they first found out what had happened.
"We were alerted to it on Monday morning... it was a complete shock. We had no idea this happened over the weekend, as all our youth clubs run Monday to Friday.
"We just can't believe it. It's just completely pointless damage that's been done, there's no real sense to it. We're not aware that we've upset anybody, we just don't know why somebody would want to make such a mess of this space."
Abby also told us about the extent of the damage.
"It looks like a small group of people have broken in and got hold of some baking supplies, cooking oil, and they've just spread it everywhere. It's up the walls, it's all over the floor, games equipment, the air hockey table is covered in it, the TV, the eggs have just been smashed everywhere.
Abbie also explained that a sweet machine, popular with young people who use the youth club, was broken into.
"We have a sweet machine that the young people like to spend their pocket money on. They've smashed that, stolen the sweets and the money has been taken from inside as well."
A fundraising page has now been setup to support the charity and over £1000 has been raised.
"It is going to cost us a lot of money because we do need to get it professionally cleaned. Things like the pool table will need re-felting, that costs £300 alone.
"We're probably going to have to be redecorated in the long run so it's been fantastic that the community support is behind us in getting everything back to how it should be."