'It certainly has ramped up': Community centres throughout Winnipeg dealing with uptick in break-ins

Community centres in Winnipeg are ringing alarm bells over what they say is an increase in break-ins.

Community centres in Winnipeg are ringing alarm bells over what they say is an increase in break-ins.

The latest incident happened at the Norberry-Glenlee Community Centre on May 17 when someone broke into the batting cage and stole several items, including a pitching machine worth thousands of dollars.

Sean Fedorowich, the president of the community centre, as well as the chair of the Riel Community Centre Board, said the situation has been getting worse.

"There's always been a certain amount of vandalism and theft, and so on, which community centres deal with just like everybody else does. But it certainly has ramped up for community centres," said Fedorowich.

"The amount of crime and criminal activity has ramped up as much for community centres as it has for everyone else."

During the monthly meetings of the Riel Community Centre Board, Fedorowich said the topic of criminal activity has been brought up more frequently, as well as what can be done to prevent these issues.

"A big part of the problem is, community centres are run by a limited number of people who aren't really necessarily trained to deal with this," he said. "Not only do we have to provide ways for people to deal with these experiences that we've never really had as community centres before, but we have to also be able to protect our users, our staff, our volunteers, our people."