Regina Zilbermints

rzilbermin@dmreg.com

A break-in at the Southeast Des Moines Boxing Club left the organization with a loss of $2,000 in equipment and graffiti inside the building.

Club manager Jerry Holman said he wouldn't allow the burglary to stunt the organizations progress. But for the nonprofit club, the losses are a major setback.

"The equipment loss is more than we have in the bank," he said. "We do shows and auctions, whatever we need to do to pay the bills and travel. When you have to take money and use it to replace things, it's huge."

Des Moines police said the burglary occurred at some point between Aug. 30 and Tuesday evening. The club's manager discovered the damage when he arrived at the club, at 641 S.E. 26th Court, around 5:30 p.m. Tuesday.

The northwest door to the building had been pried open and someone had spray painted a plastic table, a wooden bench and a wooden door, authorities said. The spray painted words disparaged boxing using pejorative terms and, on the table, someone spray painted, "MMA is no loser," referring to mixed martial arts, police reports show.

The burglars also took 20 pairs of competition gloves and at least four sets of competition head gear, authorities said.

The nonprofit youth club helps keep children and teens out of trouble and has trained hundreds of boxers over the past several decades.

Boxers still trained in the gym Tuesday night and members will clean up the vandalism, Holman said. Once they've cleaned up and better evaluated the damage, they'll decide how to raise the money to replace their losses.

"Then we'll go from there. Whatever it takes," he said.