Mower, maintance equipment stolen from Lorain Boys and Girls Club

LORAIN — Thousands of dollars worth of maintenance equipment was stolen from the Boys and Girls Club on Pearl Avenue, according to its staff. Tony Dimacchia, director of operations and at large City Councilman, said sometime between Thursday evening and Tuesday morning the lock was cut from a shed at the back of the Desich Family Campus. Dimacchia estimated $13,000 to $15,000 in equipment was stolen, including a new $7,000 commercial-grade zero-turn lawn mower the clubs use at all its Lorain County and several of its Erie County locations. "This money that we lost in the maintenance is money being taken away from the kids that we serve. We try to invest, we try to get good things so that we don't have to keep dumping money into this stuff and we try to do everything in-house so we can spend our finances on programming with kids," he said. "To go and do something like this, especially during this time — financial uncertainty for the organization under COVID-19 and now we gotta deal with that (theft)." Thieves also took other lawn equipment, mops and buckets. No cleaning or lawn chemicals were stored in the area where items were stolen. The theft comes shortly after catalytic converters were stolen from two Cleveland-based Clubs' vans, Dimacchia said, prompting three insurance claims at once. He is unsure how those claims and any potential payments will be handled yet. A police report has been filed, he said. Unbeknownst until the break-in, the cameras in that area were not working, Dimacchia said. They plan to invest in more cameras and a lock that cannot be cut. In the meantime, Dimacchia said the club is hoping passersby or neighbors saw something suspicious over the weekend, or may see a listing for the lawn mower or other commercial-grade maintenance equipment on Facebook marketplace or other sale sites and alert him or Lorain police. "People walk in our doors all the time seeing if we can help them, whether it's food, clothing, Christmas toys, hygiene products — you're a family in need you come reach out to us, we try to help you," he said. "There's no reason to steal from us." Anyone with information on the stolen items can call the Club at (440) 444-1279. Contact Carissa Woytach at (440) 329-7245 or cwoytach@chroniclet.com.