Last night my neighbour alerted me to the fact that the church lights were on and she thought someone had gone in there. Just at that moment two young men came walking up the church path. I had called the police and had them on the line, I yelled out to stop them, but one ran off and the other came over and said he was OK he had been here last year and he was only sitting in the church. He said that the door was open. This could not have been true as the door was locked by me the night before and unless he got in after the door had been damaged and opened he was not telling the truth. I asked the police officer on the phone what to do and he just said, let the boy go and tell him not to do it again. I did this and the police officer said to call him back if anything else happened. He did not give me a report number and to me it sounded as though the matter was closed. Then one of our church wardens came down and went across with one of my neighbours to see what had happened. When the neighbour came back up he mentioned that the door was wrecked and the place smelled of canabis. I got back on the phone to the police and this time they raised a crime number and took more detailed notes. A can was found in the church as well, so they were keen to get fingerprints if possible. This morning a scene of crime officer called and took those fingerprints, as well as checking a bottle of communion wine for DNA traces through the saliva at the bottle top, since I had noticed there was less in the bottle than had been there. The damage to the door is so severe that we are now unable to open the door or close it easily and we will probably have to have a completely new locking system installed. How sad that young people, in order to avoid their parents we assume, feel it is ok to damage church property for their benefit. This makes it very hard for us to show our local community that the church might be a safe space open and welcoming to all.