Funeral is hit by football break-ins
BREAK-INS at two football clubs coincided with the funeral of island football community legend Garry Cortez on Tuesday, and left some unable to attend.
Both Rangers FC in St Andrew’s and Northfield on Grand Fort Road, St Sampson’s, were burgled overnight on Monday, with change and food being taken from Rangers, but nothing obvious being stolen from Northfield.
North vice-president Colin Kimber said the realisation that there had been a forced entry to the club only came when he arrived to open it ahead of the funeral.
‘I got there in the morning to open up for the caterers and found that the hallway doors had been forced open, and they had smashed the door down in the our kit room,’ he said.
‘They were obviously looking for money, but I don’t know whether a car came along the road and startled them because it doesn’t seem like they took anything.
‘If they had got into the club house and smashed things up, that would have been the worst possible scenario – we held Garry’s funeral in there later that day, and it was just a nightmare when I arrived and realised what had happened.’
Mr Kimber said the funeral had gone ahead as planned, held at the club, with more than 600 people in attendance.
The police had acted very quickly to clear the crime scene so everything went undisturbed, he added.
‘I’d like to see the people that did this punished, and I think the 600 angry people from the funeral would too.’
Zoe Lihou, president of Rangers, said members of their committee were not able to make the funeral, however, as they were busy dealing with the fall-out from their break-in.
‘As I understand it some bits of confectionery seem to have been taken, but luckily we don’t keep any significant cash on site, so they took the change from the tills but that was about it,’ she said.
If anyone has any information in relation to either break-in they should call Guernsey Police on 725111, or Crimestoppers, anonymously, on 0800 555 111.
Full story in today's Guernsey Press
