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OAKLAND, Calif. (KTVU) - An Oakland Girl Scout troop’s leadership project was vandalized only weeks after they unveiled it outside a church on Telegraph Avenue.
The troop, made up of 4th and 5th graders, spent months raising money for a lending library, part of a community engagement project. They hoped the library would earn them a “bronze award” – the highest honor a Girl Scout Junior can achieve. But Monday, somebody stole the library, and only left the damaged wooden base.
"It was literally, someone pried it off the structure to take it out,” said Camille Stroughter, the Junior Troop leader. "It's a major achievement and it's unfortunate that somebody took this away from them."
The library was in its final stages - installed in front of the Beebe Memorial Cathedral in the Temescal District.
“I mean we went through a lot to have it built,” said Stroughter. “And so it's just really unfortunate that someone would think it's ok to take something that doesn't belong to them. So it's a hard lesson for the girls."
Charley Hames Jr, the senior pastor at the church said they have never had problems with vandalism.
“It's really amazing and somewhat disappointing that something as simple of a lending library not only being vandalized but taken away after these girls have done such a great job to put it together,” he said.
Stroughter says she didn’t call police, but she does want to raise awareness in hopes the person who took the library will return it.
“We just want the library back," she said.