Thieves steal lawnmower from football club

Thieves took the sit-on machine from a lock-up at Gornal Athletic on New Year's Eve.

Club secretary Kevin Williams says the incident has been "devastating" particularly given finances are strained due to Covid.

The club, which plays at Garden Walk Stadium, launched a social media campaign to trace the yellow mower, which is a Stiga Park model.

The last known sighting was near London Fields, in Milking Bank, where two people dressed in black were seen riding the machine.

West Midlands Police confirmed it is investigating the incident.

Mr Williams said: "This has been devastating. The club is run by volunteers. We work hard to make the grounds like nice.

"With the mower, the pitch started to look good but now we are back to where we started.

"We are already affected by the Covid situation with a lack of money coming in. We don't know where we will get the money for a new one.

"You can never have a burglary at the right time, but this is definitely at the wrong time."

The football club purchased the mower in February last year, thanks to a grant from the Football Foundation.

However it was only used for "20 hours" due to the constant disruption brought on by the pandemic, said Mr Williams.

The mower was stored in a lock-up at the base of the club grounds.

It is believed the culprits first broke into the storage area on December 30 and tried to push it out the stadium.

But due to the snow on the pitch, they left it on the playing field and returned the following day, where they "hot-wired" the device and drove it off, said Mr Williams.

Damage was also caused to the lock-up door, which was left bent.

A spokesman for West Midlands Police said: "We've received a report of a mower being stolen from Lower Gornal Athletic Football Club, Garden Walk, Dudley.

"Anyone with information about the burglary is asked to contact us via Live Chat or by calling 101. Quote 20DY/473B/21."