Officials have reported several instances of theft at campuses in the William S. Hart Union High School District, with individuals using ladders to access rooftops to steal “anything that can be recycled.”

Over the past few months, several rooftops on Hart District campuses have reportedly been both burglarized and vandalized.

“It is a constant trying to maintain schools, but when you throw in the mix of serious theft it becomes even worse,” wrote Carle Manley, director of maintenance and operations for the Hart District, in an email to KHTS. 

According to Manley, people have been accessing rooftops using tall ladders in order to steal “anything that can be recycled.” The material they take may be sold at a recycling center for “pennies on the dollar,” getting $20 for a valve that costs the community over $400 to replace.

“At all of our schools, we’ve been having thieves going up on the roofs in the off-hours and at night,” Manley said in a phone call Thursday. “I assume people think that this is a maintenance crew up there, but it is thieves and they are destroying stuff. The theft is incredible.”

Officials estimate that these incidents have caused anywhere between $10,000 and $12,000 in damages thus far.

“The current theft is very expensive and that is our community’s monies that are stolen,” Manley wrote. “Funds intended to replace let’s say carpeting is spent restoring things stolen by a group of thieves.”

See Related: Hart District Aims To Return Students To Classroom By End Of March

When any sort of theft occurs on campus, school officials on-site report it to their School Resource Officers, deputies from the Santa Clarita Valley Sheriff’s Station assigned to each school. However, these reports do not prevent thefts from occurring before they happen.

“Somebody has to do something, because it’s costing all of us money to replace and repair the damage, and it’s the community’s money,” Manley said.

Manley encourages all residents to call the Sheriff’s Station if they see anyone on the roof of a school campus during nights or off-hours, assuring that he would not send maintenance workers up there during those times.

“At the maintenance department, we do not service these things at night,” he said. “If anybody is up there, they’re not us.”

The Santa Clarita Valley Sheriff’s Station can be reached at (661) 255-1121.

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