CHESAPEAKE, Va. — A local Boy Scout troop is heartbroken after their trailer, containing many of their supplies, was apparently stolen earlier this week.
"It's hard for me to believe that somebody would take a Boy Scout trailer from a church," Mike Johnson, with Troop 462, said.
Johnson said Troop 462 has been around since the 70s in Chesapeake but recently made Messiah United Methodist Church on Dominion Commons Way in Chesapeake the troops home.
It's where the group now plans out activities, camping trips, and acts of service.
"One of the activities for last night was to clean up the trailer from our last campout," Johnson said. "The first thing we noticed was that our new scout trailer was missing."
Johnson said their newest trailer which the boys fundraised for about four years ago had gone missing and the only thing left was the cinder blocks it sat on.
"They sawed that or cut it off and got rid of that and we're assuming they cut the locks and everything else off of the trailer," Johnson said.
He said the church had security footage of two men and a light-colored truck taking the trailer sometime around Wednesday morning.
He said because the trailer sat under parking lot lights he didn't think someone would be so bold to drive off with it.
"I know the church has had to do a few things, they've had catalytic converters stolen off of their preschool bus and other things," Johnson said. "So it's kinda like a quiet little corner that nobody necessarily pays much attention to."
The trailer holds more than just cooking and camping gear but also some of the troop's history.
Including awards, they've earned dating back to their beginning.
"You earn almost like different awards and they give you a little tassel and what everybody does is they hang them on our flag," Johnson said. " Some of the ones that were on the flag were back from 1974 that were still hanging there and we obviously had a bunch but now it's all gone."
As of Friday afternoon, Chesapeake police have not released a suspect description but the trailer does have the troop's logo on the side of it and solar panels on top of it.
Johnson said they may have to look into using money from their popcorn fundraisers to try and find a new trailer.
It's something they want to avoid since that money is normally used to offset the costs of activities for scouts.
"Our goal here is to breed leaders and good upstanding community members and you just took and showed them the bad side of what it can be," Johnson said.
If you know anything please give the Crime Line a call at 1-888-LOCK-U-UP
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