Thieves steal Boy Scouts trailer ahead of camping weekend

INDIANAPOLIS, Ind. (WISH) — Someone stole a local Boy Scouts troop’s trailer just before a camping trip. 

Now, Scouts leaders are asking for help tracking down the trailer and who could have taken it.

The boys of Boy Scouts Troop 316 loaded their camping gear Friday night into the back of their assistant scoutmaster’s truck for their big spring trip to Camp Krietenstein near Center Point, Indiana, about 50 miles southwest of Indianapolis. 

But, that wasn’t the original plan. 

“It appears they used a saw, something electronic; basically; a saw to cut through the lock,” said Assistant Scoutmaster Brian Brown.

Brown said the thieves stole the troop’s newly refurbished trailer sometime Wednesday night from the parking lot of Valley Mills Christian Church, 5555 Kentucky Ave., between Mendenhall and South High School roads on the city’s southwest side. 

Brown said the thieves made off with hundreds of dollars of the Boy Scouts troop’s belongings.

“Some 14-quart, 12-quart Dutch ovens. We had some homemade rope-making apparatus. We had some poles for our dining canopy, a gas grill,” said Brown.

This isn’t the first time the troop has experience a theft. Brown said someone previously snatched the trailer’s propane tanks. That’s why the troop moved its newer trailer to another location.

But, Brown said, it isn’t about the stuff inside the trailer, it’s about who the thieves hit. 

“They are stealing from the kids, which is the sad part, and they stole it out of a church parking lot. We’re not sure. It’s a struggle to understand the mental state of somebody who would want to steal from kids from a church,” said Brown. 

Brown said he would accept it if the trailer was brought back, no questions asked, that would be the end of it. 

Anyone with information was urged to call Crime Stoppers of Central Indiana at 317-262-8477.