Thames Valley Police have begun investigations after burglaries at Queen’s and Lincoln College boathouses at the weekend left the premises in disarray.
The incident took place between the hours of 6.30pm on Saturday evening and 11.00am on Sunday morning, and led to the theft of speaker equipment (cox boxes) as well as sustained damage to doors, a whiteboard, mirrors and a window at Queen’s.
The offenders gained entry to the boathouse by forcing open a rear door. Once inside, they unsuccessfully attempted to breach the entrance of a storage area before vandalising the interior of the boathouse and making off with their loot.
Reports came in later of the second burglary at Lincoln College boat house on the same evening, which shares a building with Queens and Oriel college boat clubs.
While nothing was stolen from Lincoln boathouse, the assault on the interior of the boathouse appeared more ferocious than at Queen’s boathouse.
Florence Driscoll, LCBC Women’s Captain, told Cherwell, “the vandals made a mess, breaking a few picture frames and spilling bottles of alcohol over the floor.
“Although the door to the valuables cupboard was found open, as far as we are currently able to tell nothing was stolen” Quite why the vandals neglected to misappropriate any of the contents of the Lincoln boathouse while instead choosing to steal from Queen’s remains a mystery.
Oriel boathouse, which is the first of the three in the building, was not broken into.
The news came following both college’s success at the Torpids regatta. Everything damaged at Lincoln was insured and the only disruption to the boat club was that members were unable to use the upstairs level of the building on Monday afternoon while the police carried out investigations.
