The changing rooms were left unlocked by the club and thieves entered the officials room and away team changing room (the home one was locked). In full view of CCTV, the robbers stole personal possessions of referees, inlcuding phones, iPods, sat navs, jewellery and watches.
Furthermore their car keys were taken and used to enter their parked cars which saw more possessions taken, and then saw the cars themselves stolen.
This causes concern for all officials operating at every level, however it is clearly not possible to carry on to the field with you every valuable item.
This incident has ramifications for all referees, and does mean that you need to be extra careful …. Lessons to learn:
• Take the minimum with you to the game
• Hide valuables and keys or take them with you or have someone responsible look after them
• Ensure the Club has security measures in place …. and perhaps wait until you see the room locked
• Make sure that you have serial numbers for everything (the police cannot hand back your items if you don’t)
Please think about what you take to matches and what you do with them.
Please also study the CCTV images in the Related Documents section of this page - if you have any information, please contact Referee Development Manager Dan Robathan at daniel.robathan@middlesexfa.com or 0208 515 6903.