Break-in at Surrey soccer clubhouse \u2018a difficult setback\u2019 for volunteers<\/p>\n
Published 10:52 am Wednesday, May 27, 2026<\/p>\n
Members of one of Surrey\u2019s oldest soccer clubs are scrambling to replace equipment stolen over the May long weekend.<\/p>\n
Thieves made a mess of Guildford Athletic Club\u2019s headquarters at Hjorth Road Park, off 104 Avenue, and hindered their ability to play games and hold practices.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe had a significant amount of equipment stolen including our TV, POS system (for payments), soccer balls, nets, ball pumps and other club supplies that support our programs and teams,\u201d club president Jennifer Woodley told the Now-Leader.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt has been a difficult setback for the club and our volunteers,\u201d she added.<\/p>\n
\u201cUnfortunately, we also did not have insurance coverage for the stolen equipment, which makes replacing these items even more challenging for the club financially.\u201d<\/p>\n
Thieves left behind bolt-cutters, found on the Tuesday afternoon following the long weekend.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe\u2019re still discovering things as we go along that are that are missing, compressors and things like that,\u201d Woodley added. \u201cWe\u2019re like, \u2018Oh, where\u2019s this?\u2019 They took all of our our nets for our minis programs.\u201d<\/p>\n
Guildford Athletic Club, home to around 800 young soccer players, was founded more than 60 years ago, in 1965.<\/p>\n
Volunteer members now appeal for help to replace close to $5,000 in equipment stolen by thieves.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe\u2019ve never had a break-in here like this, and I\u2019ve been here a long time, nearly 30 years,\u201d said Manjit Basra, club registrar.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe\u2019ve had to buy some equipment, otherwise we couldn\u2019t run some programs,\u201d she added. \u201cSome parents have had to take balls home to blow them up because they have a compressor at home, things like that. That\u2019s all time-consuming, all of those things. We\u2019ve had to really scramble.\u201d<\/p>\n
Club members say they\u2019ve had increasing safety concerns at Hjorth Road Park including the discovery of drug paraphernalia in bathrooms and vagrants camping out.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe have lots of volunteer coaches who don\u2019t feel comfortable dealing with those situations including female coaches,\u201d Basra noted.<\/p>\n
\u201cLike many community clubs,\u201d Woodley added, \u201cwe rely heavily on volunteers, fundraising and community support to keep programs running. While (the break-in) is discouraging, the support we have already received from families and the soccer community has reminded us why local sports organizations matter so much.\u201d<\/p>\n
Photos of the break-in are posted on Guildford Athletic Club\u2019s Facebook page<\/a>. Learn more about club activities, including free sessions in June, a summer soccer series and fall registration, on guildfordac.com<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Break-in at Surrey soccer clubhouse \u2018a difficult setback\u2019 for volunteers Published 10:52 am Wednesday, May 27, 2026 Members…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":697746,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[194299],"tags":[49,48,163792,87674],"class_list":["post-697745","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-surrey","tag-ca","tag-canada","tag-lower-mainland","tag-surrey"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/697745","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=697745"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/697745\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/697746"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=697745"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=697745"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=697745"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}