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Police: Teens went on local rec center crime spree, stealing cash and pooping in pool

Police say two teens stole safes and cash and even pooped in one pool.

MCLEAN, Va. — Local swim clubs and parks are on alert after a rash of break-ins and vandalism that included defecating in one of the pools.

The incidents happened in the overnight hours last weekend in Arlington and Fairfax County. 

Snack bars in as many as nine swim clubs and a park in Fairfax, Arlington, Vienna and McLean were hit. 

Fairfax County Police confirm these pools in McLean were hit: Tuckahoe, Kent Gardens, Chesterbrook, Highlands and Hamlet. Great Falls Swim and Tennis Club was hit and in Vienna, Cardinal Hill was hit.  Arlington County Police confirm Overlee pool was hit and community members told WUSA9 Nike baseball park in Great Falls was also hit. 

Snack bar cash was targeted, but not all break-ins resulted in money stolen.

The first break-in happened at the Hamlet Swim and Tennis Club at 1:05 am Sunday when cash was taken in a brazen method. 

The thieves ripped the safe right off the wall. Christina Curtis - who runs Hamlet's snack bar - was the first to notice the damage. 

"And when I went in to open up the safe, it had been ripped out of the wall.  And I called and the first thing that they said was, 'Oh, my God, we've been robbed.' And my jaw just dropped," Curtis said.

"It was a kick in the gut," said Hamlet President Stephanie Short. 

They first worried it might have been an inside job. Then, when they heard other pools in the area were hit the next day, it put a new perspective on the crimes.

"You then realize, it's not an inside job. We were targeted. The community pools in this area were targeted, it seems..." Short said. "We're a non-profit organization, and a volunteer board that runs this place, so it was gut-wrenching to hear that this had happened."

Safes, and money were stolen from the snack bars at the pools, and from a baseball park in Great Falls, according to community leaders.  At Great Falls Swim and Tennis Club, it was vandalism that included throwing the pool furniture into the water and pooping in the pool.

"That's got to be even worse because now your dealing with someone violated your space and they left a mess that your left it clean up and have to fix," Short said.

The pools all seem back to normal, but they're hoping for an arrest soon. Hamlet Swim and Tennis Club has video surveillance of two suspects from the system they just installed.

Fairfax County police said the video shows two male suspects, both white, in their late teens. Curtis, from Hamlet's snack bar, has seen the video and did not recognize them.

"For the most part it seems like teenagers that seem like it a goofy prank but in the end it's a lot more than that for a lot more more people," she said. "It's hard to put in so many hours and do all the small things that take a toll on my day and someone can just hop the fence and it meant nothing then."

So far, police in Arlington and Fairfax counties have not connected the incidents, but are working with a crime analyst to see if they're related.   

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