PETERSFIELD Town Football Club are appealing for the public to support their family fun day this weekend after heartless thieves stole hundreds of pounds from their clubhouse.

Club officials discovered the break in on Sunday morning at their clubhouse in the Love Lane Stadium.

Thieves broke into a fruit machine and lottery machine after forcing their way into the premises. They then broke into the bar area and stole bar takings and float.

They also gained access to the club’s safe but fortunately there was no money in there at the time of the raid.

It is uncertain how much money was in the fruit machine and lottery machine at the time but it is believed well over £250 was taken.

The club will now have to raise this money when they hold their family fun day on Saturday instead of being able to plough all of the proceeds of that event back into the club.

Club chairman Graeme Moir was also angered by a lack of response from Hampshire Police, which did not send any officers to investigate the scene of the crime.

“There are some people in our community who will stoop to any kind of low just to steal from other people,” he said.

“Our club relies largely on the work of volunteers so these thieves are damaging the work and stealing directly from those people.

“We have an on going problem in the Love Lane area. People continually trespass into the stadium and have caused thousands of pounds worth of damage with their vandalism.

“There is also widespread drug taking going on in the area – we see the evidence of this on a daily basis.

“The police did not even bother to send anyone to investigate this crime but we are not surprised by that as we get little response from them when we call.

“Now we have to raise the money stolen from our fun day at the weekend.”CLARIFICATION: In the original article above, Hampshire Police were not given the opportunity to reply on the issues surrounding the break-in. Below is a statement of clarification from the Police.YOU MAY have seen in the July 19 edition of the Petersfield Post an article about a burglary at Petersfield Town Football Club.The Petersfield Post failed to give Hampshire Constabulary an opportunity to respond as part of the article to the concerns of the club chairman. It was also not made clear in the story, presented as a factual news article, that the club chairman is also the editor of the Petersfield Post. I’d like to take this opportunity to explain the action we took in responding to the burglary on Sunday, July 16.The incident was reported to police and it was established during the call that based on threat, risk and harm, an immediate police deployment was not necessary because there was no threat to anybody’s safety, the offenders were not on the scene and there was no forensic evidence to gather. Therefore it would be appropriate for officers to contact the club the next day. The local neighbourhood policing team attended the club the next day and as nobody was there, they spoke to the chairman on the phone about any investigative opportunities and to offer crime prevention advice to protect the club’s property. The chairman has not raised any concerns about this response to the neighbourhood team and we have not received a formal complaint relating to the response we gave.The neighbourhood policing team is regularly in contact with the football club and are involved in community events, including the fun day at the club on Saturday, July 22.We find it disappointing that the chairman felt it was appropriate to raise his concerns in this forum rather than speak to us so we could explain our response to him and offer a right of reply as part of the article. Clare Jenkins, East Hampshire District Commander Chief Inspector