The 88 Lynx Airdrie Air Cadet Squadron is hopeful several items will be returned to its possession after an apparent break-in at its headquarters.
According to Jennifer Harbour, chair of Parent Squadron Sponsoring Committee, the squadron’s headquarters – an ATCO trailer located behind the Town and Country Centre – was broken into sometime between Nov. 2 at 6:30 p.m. and the following day at 6 p.m.
Commanding Officer Darlene Williams was returning biathlon equipment to the trailer when she discovered the front door had been “severely damaged,” Harbour said.
“The locks and everything had been broken…and then the side fencing that secures the perimeter of the building had also been cut open, so there was significant damage to the structure of the building,” she said.
Several items of high sentimental value to the squadron – but not necessarily cash value – were discovered to be missing, Harbour said, including a taxidermied lynx that served as the squadron’s mascot. Air rifles, scopes, a first-aid kit, model planes and signed photographs were also taken.
Harbour said RCMP was contacted and a police report was filed, and the squadron will make an insurance claim. Airdrie RCMP did not respond to a request for comment.
The squadron maintains faith that the items will be returned.
“We really just want them back to our squadron,” she said. “They’re invaluable to us, and really don’t have much value on the streets, per se. But they mean a lot to our cadets – our cadets who are currently in the program and our cadets who have aged out.”
