MASSACHUSETTS COMPUTERS STOLEN FROM BOYS AND GIRLS CLUB http://news.bostonherald.com/localRegional/view.bg?articleid=169563

Good-hearted teens who toiled for months to create a high-tech oasis at the Somerville Boys and Girls Club have been scrooged big-time by dirty rotten scoundrels who stole thousands of dollars in electronics from their beloved center.

“I just don’t know what they were thinking,” said Alycia Love-Modeste, 14, of Cambridge, who started going to the Boys and Girls Club “as soon as I was of after-school age” and volunteers there.

“What they did was horrible. I hope they feel really, really guilty,” she said.

The room broken into on Sunday, called the Teen Room, was a refuge where middle-schoolers and teenagers could surf the Internet, do homework and hang out after school. It opened Oct. 1.

The club’s teen members worked for months to convert the former Head Start classroom into a youth haven, cleaning and painting the room, holding fund-raisers and gathering donated items.

“All the work, all the money we raised,” said Reggie Joujoute, 11, of Malden. “It took a long time.”

The break-in happened between 9 p.m. and 10 p.m. Sunday, according to Capt. Paul Upton of the Somerville police.

“The shame of this whole thing is that the Boys and Girls Club has to scrape for everything they get,” he said.

Among the swiped items were four newly donated desktop computers, a printer the teens had raised money for through a bake sale, a DVD player, and stereo system used for dance classes offered at the Boys and Girls Club.

“It’s baffling,” said Chile Eng, executive director of the Boys and Girls Clubs of Middlesex County. “Who would even think to steal from the Boys and Girls Club? That should be the one thing that’s sacred in any community.”

Eng expects replacing the electronics will cost at least $5,000.

But the crushed teens are rallying once again to pull the Teen Room together. They discussed raising money to offer as a reward for information leading to the return of the electronics, to replace the property and upgrade the club’s security system. They hope to hold bake sales, holiday bazaars and a basketball tournament.

Anyone who would like to donate money can send it to the Boys and Girls Club of Middlesex County, P.O. Box 269, 181 Washington St., Somerville, MA 02143.