The Philipsburg Jubilee Library was broken into approximately between late Saturday evening, August 30 and early Sunday morning, August 30. The culprits carried away an estimated US $5,000 in stolen goods.
Library staff members discovered the glass window to the Director’s office completely shattered Monday morning, September 1 at 8:00am on arrival at the Library. All the contents of office draws were thrown to the floor, creating a littering of papers throughout the entire office. The culprits had also managed to tamper with the electrical equipment in the Library, causing further damage.
The incident was reported to the police department, who arrived on the scene to take statements from library staff member about the incident, in order to compile a report on the burglary.
“The library is an important institution in our community which is used daily by hundreds of children and adults on a daily basis. Yet our library building is still not on top of the priority list of the policy makers. The fact that our library became the victim of a burglary proves again that the current library building is outdated, not safe and not up to standard. For many years now we have been trying to convince the policy makers that funds should be made available to properly maintain and upgrade the building, to make it a safe learning environment for the entire community. So far we have not been successful in securing these funds. We hope this burglary is a wakeup call for the new government to finally tackle this issue”, stated Library Director, Monique Alberts.
Library management will have to spend a total of US$ 3,000 to repair the damages done by the bandits. Alberts noted the inconvenience this incident caused financially for to the Library as non-profit, organization, which relies solely on subsidy, membership fees and corporate sponsors to stay afloat.