Members of the Tuggeranong Hawks Football Club will begin their season next week without their mascot Harry the Hawk after the head of the costume was stolen.
Subscribe now for unlimited access.
$0/
(min cost $0)
or signup to continue reading
On Thursday, for the second time in a week, members of the club found their training room at the Gordon playing fields broken into and the mascot costume was among about $2000 worth of uniforms, sporting equipment and medical kits taken.
In both instances thieves forced their way in through the room's roller door and the thefts have left the Aussie rules players reeling.
Vice-president Kym Lovett said the club had no idea why it was targeted twice in a week over the school holidays.
"Once is bad enough but to come back again, we'll all disgusted," he said.
"A week out from the start of our season it pisses people off."
The ACT government, as the owner of the training room, will pick up the bill for the door repairs and look at making the room more secure, but the club will be forced to raise funds to replace the stolen equipment.
"We're not a club backed by a licensed or registered club so everything we've got in there has either been donated or we've raised money or had sponsors donate money and we've had to go out and buy it," Mr Lovett said.
"It's just upsetting … the boys are pretty keen [to start the season] … it gets to the morale a bit but steels their resolve to fight on."
Members of the club found some of the clothing and equipment dumped in surrounding streets, and on Friday morning a nearby resident contacted police after finding more items in nearby bushes.
But the "recognisable" hawk head remained missing.
"We use the mascot at some of the junior events... or if we have a special event at our home games in Greenway," Mr Lovett said.
"We bought it about three years ago so we have to now go back to the supplier and see if we can buy a one-off head."
Mr Lovett said the second break-in occurred sometime between Tuesday night and lunchtime Thursday and the first instance was discovered last Thursday.
He urged any nearby residents to report suspicious behaviour to police or contact the club if they had found any further items.
"We haven't had any trouble for a while, the building itself they occasionally try to vandalise but it's pretty secure," he said.
"Occasionally the guys will get down here before training and there will be broken bottles and evidence that someone's lit a fire in the corner but we haven't any great break ins or thefts for a while."
An ACT Policing spokeswoman confirmed one of the incidents had been reported, but police were waiting for more information from the club before they began investigations.
