Pakenham Scouts Sarah Rieschieck, Liam Hogan, Nick Williams, holding the rock that was possibly used to break the window, and Craig Tamlin are not happy about the damage done to their hall on Saturday night.
By Elizabeth Lillis
PAKENHAM Scouts had a scare when a window of the Scout Hall was smashed while the group met on Saturday night.
Pakenham Scout group leader Ian Thorne said 22 Scouts were in the hall in James Street for a post-Jamboree gathering and sleepover when the window of the men’s toilet was smashed from outside the hall.
“We had been looking at photos from the Jamboree and had eaten dinner and the Scouts were having a bit of a disco when the we heard a big bang,” he said.
The disturbance happened about 10.30pm.
Mr Thorne said luckily none of the Scouts were in the toilet at the time the window was broken.
The leaders went outside and spoke to two teenagers passing by, who said they had not broken the window but had seen some other youths running towards the Pakenham Skate Park.
Scout members later found a rock about three centimetres long, which appeared to have been used to break the wire-covered window.
Mr Thorne said damage had occurred randomly at the hall over the past 12 months, with other windows broken and graffiti sprayed on the building and the Scouts’ storage shed, but this was the first time it had occurred while the Scouts were in the hall.
The Scout troop is annoyed and frustrated with the on-going damage and surprised about the brazen vandalism on Saturday night.
“We work hard to keep the hall neat and tidy and it is frustrating when this happens,” Mr Thorne said.
Mr Thorne said many of the previously broken windows had been replaced with polycarbonate to prevent future attempts to break them.
He said the Scouts, aged between 11 and 14 years, were ‘disturbed’ by the incident and the lights outside the hall were left on during the night while they slept to help them feel safe.
A break-in also occurred at the Uniting Church in James Street on the same evening.
Pakenham Police said a door was forced open.
“The church was trashed inside and a stereo system was pulled out and part of it was found in the front garden,” Sergeant Phil Jury said.
The damage caused by the break-in has an estimated repair bill of $1000.
