Yellowknife (May 21/04) - Police are looking into a break and enter at the St. John Ambulance headquarters, the latest in a string of problems that employees attribute to the organization's downtown location.

Sandra Beaton, executive director of St. John Ambulance, stands beside the organization's safe which was broken into Monday night. The perpetrator(s) used an axe to crack the safe - Andrew Raven/NNSL photo

"We're a non-profit organization without a large budget," said executive director Sandra Beaton. "It's extremely frustrating."

Employees arrived at work Tuesday morning to find a shattered window and a badly mangled safe.

Beaton believes the perpetrator(s) smashed the safe with an axe, tearing through two layers of metal and one layer of concrete before stealing the money inside. Beaton said there wasn't a significant amount of cash in the safe.

While the organization has insurance, it will still have to cover a $500 deductible, said Beaton.

This marks the third time in the last six months the building has been vandalized. In August, an office window was shattered and more recently, a shed in the backyard was broken into.

Employees also routinely clean up beer bottles, cans of hair spray, vomit and even human excrement from the building's back step, located on the alleyway between 50th and 51st Streets.

"It's embarrassing to have to go outside and clean up vomit so people can have a cigarette while they're taking a course," said Beaton.

Beaton gave police a list of potential suspects and RCMP Sgt. Steve McVarnock said officers are currently investigating the break-in. He asks anyone with information to contact the RCMP.

As a result of the vandalism, Beaton said the board of directors will consider moving the organization's headquarters. "This is becoming an annual thing," Beaton said of the break-in. "I'd like to be somewhere else."