Nathan VanderKlippe
Northern News Services

Rankin Inlet (July 17/02) - Rankin Inlet may tighten up security at the arena after a recent burglar stole about 250 CDs from a deejay booth inside the building.

The vandal or vandals damaged the front doors of the arena, likely prying them open with a crowbar. An inside door was opened by unscrewing the exterior hinges.

The incident happened early in the morning on July 6.

The CDs were owned by James Howard, who deejays the bi-monthly teen dance in the arena. After the CDs were stolen, he announced that he was cancelling all further teen dances until the music was returned. The next morning, all but eight of the CDs were returned to the arena.

However, a number of them were scratched, covered in finger prints and damaged by water. Howard has 10,855 songs stored in MP3 format on a computer in the arena, and he said he will have to recreate 25 of the most badly-damaged discs.

"I take it very personally for someone to steal from me, because I feel that me and my wife (Jacintha) contribute enough to the community that people wouldn't do this," said Howard, who called the perpetrators "a few ignorant people."

Some of the community's teens were firmly behind Howard.

"It hurts the teenagers who attend the teen dances. I think, what a stupid thing to do," said Norman Ford, a 16-year-old who attends all of the dances.

Howard got his start as a deejay in New York City when he was a teen. He moved to Rankin five years ago, and began deejaying here as a sideline to work at the drop-in centre. The dances caught on, and the hamlet stepped in to support him with over $10,000 in new equipment. The theft was discussed at hamlet council, where senior administrative officer Ron Roach suggested tightening up security at the facility. He said he will look into either a burglar alarm or additional chains for the building.

"The arena is getting broken into more and more," he said. The building has been vandalized four times in the past four months. Repairs for those damages have cost the hamlet about $10,000.

Howard, for one, supports increased security in the arena. The deejay booth contains over $30,000 in equipment, he said. "What I'd like to see done eventually is to have the same system as in the school -- an alarm system and cameras," he said.

The next teen dances will be July 26 and 27.