Upper Moreland Swim Club Ransacked Leaving At Least $40K In Damages
HATBORO, Pa. (CBS) -- For 35 years Ron Ziegler has been volunteering at the Upper Moreland Swim Club in Hatboro, donating his time to keep the place going.
This week Zieglar experienced A frustrating first at the club when on Thursday the swim club was ransacked.
"I was disheartened when I saw this room, said Zieglar who is President of the Upper Moreland Swim Club.
Vandals ripped through the swim club's office and its food stand, "The Gator Grill."
The grill is the place Zieglar spends most of his time at during the summer.
He volunteers in the grill, making money for the swim club.
"They destroyed our first aid room with all of our medical supplies, amplifier, our intercom system, which we haven't checked out yet. They just went on a rampage and started knocking things off, said Zieglar.
The swim club isn't sure if its insurance company will cover the cost to repair all of this damage. The cost for the office and first aid room alone is estimated to be at least $10,000. The cost to repair for The Gator Grill around $30,000.
All of the cooking equipment in The Gator Grill seems to be a total loss.
The vandals ripped all the equipment from the wall and flooded the place.
"I am a very optimistic person, and I know we will get through this but I don't understand why it happened," said Zieglar.
The best guess at this point in the investigation is that the vandals were initially thieves who tried to break into a safe, that only had $50 in it.
When they realized they weren't leaving with any money, they tore up the place.
"The silver lining is a lot of the kids that worked here have emailed me and said in one way or another, 'hey this is our club that shouldn't happen here.'" said Zieglar, "I can't believe it from our community, from the news and so many different sources, so many people volunteering right now to help us clean up."
With the help of volunteers, the swim club should be able to open up in time for Memorial Day weekend.
Its food stand likely won't be fully functional by then but the club will at least try to serve drinks and light summer snacks.
