Heartless thief swipes Euro 2016 sweepstake cash in community centre break-in

A CALLOUS thief who ransacked a shop within Dunshaughlin Community Centre made off with a small amount of cash including money staff had chipped in for a Euro 2016 sweepstake.

The burglary happened in the early hours of last Friday morning when a lone male is believed to have smashed a side window and entered the building.

Local councillor Gerry O'Connor discovered the break-in on Friday morning and said it was the first time the community centre had ever been targeted.

'We know it was just one person acting alone. He smashed in a window and took some cash. We have a small shop in the centre and he pulled that apart. He tore out the fridge and threw bottles and chocolates onto the floor. 

'We leave a small float out for the next morning and he took that. He also took money we had put together for a pool for Euro 2016. There was 12 off us in it with each person having two teams each and he got that as well.'

The pool was down to the last two ahead of Sunday's final between France and Portugal, Cllr O'Connor said they'd find a way to make it up the finalists.

'We also sell some charity cards and there was some money we had built up in the till before we hand it over so I'd say probably around €200 was taken in total.

'In the 16 years we've been open we've never had any of that type of nonsense so it's a real shame. We'll obviously be reviewing our security and making sure that can't it doesn't again but people are shocked.

 

'We've a fantastic community here in Dunshaughlin and for the local community centre to be targeted is really disappointing. 

Cllr O'Connor posted images of the break-in on social media and added that CCTV footage of the incident had been passed to Gardai.

Dunshaughlin Community Centre was officially opened in 2000 by President Mary McAleese after 15 years of local fundraising. It opened “Peak Fitness Gym” in 2002 and currently has 250 members.

Dunshaughlin Men’s Shed operate from the centre and shares use of four community allotments with local schools.