Over $5,000 in items and tools stolen from Optimist Hill

It has not been an easy week for Optimist Hill in Saskatoon with the cold temperatures keeping the city’s only hill closed all week and now — they are out north of $5,000 after a recent theft.

Maxine Tebbe, General Manager of Optimist Hill saw the Wednesday morning theft on the security footage.

“A gentleman jumped the fence into our maintenance compound, (he) tried getting into our small shop with a crowbar,” said Tebbe. “Before moving on to our CAT (Caterpillar snow grater) shed, (he) totally damaged the entire door and frame.”

The door frame of the tool shed that was broken into at Optimist Hill. (Will Mandzuk/650CKOM)

Tebbe said the stolen items are used almost everyday at the hill.

“(He was) wheeling out with our Milwaukee kits, all of our tools and of course all of our sensors,” she said. “It’s a lot of stuff that he won’t know what it’s for and won’t be able to sell. We just wish that he would throw it back over the fence so that we could get it back.”

During the summer Optimist Hill had one of its lifts rebuilt and they are having some growing pains with it.

“If we don’t have these sensors and the tools readily available for us to be able to fix the lifts,” said Tebbe. “The lifts could go down and we might have to close.”

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The Hill has dealt with break-ins before but the trying winter paired with this has left the hill struggling.

“We had someone break into the chalet and set off a fire extinguisher,” said Tebbe. “It’s something else we are not financially able to keep covering, we had some other unexpected things come up this year and we’re just treading water.”

Tebbe said this is a frustrating blow to the ski hill.

“We’re trying to do a service here,” she explained. “You don’t see the smiles and the excitement when kids are learning skills or when they’re sliding down the hill.”

Tebbe also estimated that there are about seven weeks left in their winter season.