A swimming pool in Basse has been broken into for the second time. This time, havoc has been caused. Employees are fed up and go to the police.
It is just before half past ten on Sunday morning when team leader Monique van Damme arrives at the ‘t Tolhekke swimming pool in Basse. When she walks through the doors, her heart sinks: the swimming pool is one big chaos.
“It has been extremely destroyed,” Van Damme reports on the telephone. The planters, parasols and also the leaf blower are in the water.
The posters with which they raised money for a new slide have been pulled from the wall. The flag was also pulled from the pole and tied to a container.
Nighttime burglaries
Strangers break into the pool in the middle of the night. The fences are demolished and planks are used to walk over the barbed wire.
They had placed that barbed wire just a week earlier to keep out unwanted visitors.
Because the suspects threw all kinds of things into the water, the swimming pool water became heavily contaminated. On Sunday morning, staff and volunteers immediately started cleaning up everything.
Although the swimming pool could remain open, the bottom is still full of dirt. That still needs to be cleaned on Monday. People still come to swim: “The diehards are not discouraged,” says Van Damme.
‘We’re done with it’
It is hard for the staff and volunteers. “We have to make do with a small group of people who are committed to the swimming pool with heart and soul. They had just finished work and then this happens again,” says Van Damme.
The extent of the damage will become clear in the coming days. On Monday they will view the images from the eight cameras and remove the last traces of the destruction.
The swimming pool will also report the incident to the police. “We are done with it,” said team leader Van Damme.
