An estimated $10,000 worth of equipment was stolen and vending machines were broken into late last Wednesday night near the boys’ locker room, according to Pastor Richard Womack of Valley Spring Church.

The primary sound equipment, which includes a cord keyboard weighing 150 lbs. and worth about $3,000, was discovered missing Thursday morning.

“They knew what they wanted and that’s what they took,” Womack said about the lost equipment that would fill up the back of a full-size truck. “It’s nothing you strap on your back and walk away with,” he added.

Kathy Vogt, assistant principal of operations and resources, said the burglars were “pretty good at what they do. They weren’t the average Joe-off-the-street.

“Somebody had to have known what was in there and how they knew, I don’t know,” Vogt added.

“Somebody had to have known what was in there and how they knew, I don’t know,” Vogt added.

The criminals took mostly expensive sound equipment including microphones and speakers, but did not do any damage.

The church, which rents the cafeteria for its Sunday services, will use its smaller portable equipment for the next couple of weeks until the insurance or police help, Womack said.

According to Womack, the church has been storing their equipment on campus for two years and while there was also a break-in last month, nothing was taken.

Maintenance Foreman Neil Rogers said a grinder, a device for cutting metal, was used to cut off the locks to the gate at 39th Avenue and the door to the storage shed as well as to grind big holes in three of the cages that protect the pop machines where money was taken.

While it is unknown how much money was stolen from the machines, which are changed weekly in the winter, Vogt said the main money Greenway is missing is the revenue they could be making when the machines are out of service.

Such revenue is used for extras that the school budget does not cover.

“It is the only discretionary money we have. (We) us it as needed,” she said.

Though Vogt deems the criminals not likely to be students, she said if anyone has information, she is always willing to listen.

“If somebody came forward, we always would offer some type of reward,” Vogt said.