This is not how we anticipated starting 2023, but unfortunately we’re on the receiving end of more “criminal” activity at our Scout HQ.

Over the Christmas period, it appears as though someone has decided to break into our grounds (damaging the perimeter fencing in the process) and steal our CCTV cameras from our HQ building.

Three cameras have been taken over a couple of nights during the festive period, with the thefts coming to our attention on 01/01/2023. Unbelievably, after we had been made aware of the theft and visiting the site to review the aftermath – a fourth camera was stolen later the same day (01/01/2023) at approximately 19:40.

Thankfully after the site visit earlier in the day, we do have footage of a person on our grounds at that time the fourth camera was taken, they were wearing a Camouflage Jacket, blue jeans and a black face covering.

We’re appealing to anyone with CCTV in the surrounding area, in particular on the roads surrounding the HQ to review their CCTV footage around the time of the incident looking out for someone matching the description and sharing the footage with us.

The theft has been reported to Cheshire Police.

This latest act against our HQ is another blow to the group, as this is the third incident at our HQ in 12 months – with the previous incidents being vandalism and anti-social behaiour.

Our amazing team of volunteers have worked incredibly hard over recent years to raise a significant amount of money to refurbish/modernise our HQ and the surrounding grounds for the enjoyment of our young people, and to see their hardwork resulting in acts like this is incredibly disheartening.

The CCTV system itself was purchased to protect the hard work that’s been put into the building – and the group had to fundraise to cover the costs of purchasing and installing the system. It’s fustrating to see that criminals would go after a charity that relies on grants, fundraising and our members subs to keep the group running.

At the time of posting, we estimate that it will cost us around £700 to repair/replace our damaged and missing property.

The cameras that were taken are 4 x Hikvision DS-2CD2347G2-LU Turret Cameras (White) that were mounted on 4 x Hikvision DS-1280ZJ-DM21G Black Camera Mounts, which look like what is shown in the picture below: