Over 100 solar panels stolen from Utrecht football club

Over a hundred solar panels were stolen from football club SV de Vecht in the Utrecht town of Loenen aan de Vecht. The solar panels were taken from the club building on Rijksstraatweg last week. The club reported the theft to the police, RTV Utrecht reports.

"You simply can't believe that such a thing can happen and that people are capable of it", the club's secretary Paul Otten said to the broadcaster. He was informed of the theft on Saturday morning. The damage amounts to tens of thousands of euros, Otten said. He believes that multiple perpetrators were involved. "Because you can't remove something like that on your own. They must have had a truck too, because you don't just put a hundred panels into a trailer."

The theft is an extra disappointment for the club members who helped pay for the solar panels. "We spent more than a year trying to raise money for those panels. That happened with subsidies and interest-free loans from twenty parents of the club", Otten said. "The idea was that we would have repaid this money after six years and that we would then have money left to invest in the quality of football."

SV de Vecht is considering what measures can be taken to prevent theft in the future. "Because they know how to find their way to our club now", Otten said.

En dan ook nog dit: een strop van vele tienduizenden euro’s voor voetbalclub #SVdeVecht, in #LoenenaandeVecht. Er zijn meer dan 100 zonnepanelen van het dak af geroofd. De dieven wisten precies wat ze moesten doen om niet betrapt te worden #hvnl pic.twitter.com/OA66xe6ebr

— Maike Senders (@MaikeHVNL) March 31, 2019