46°
Roller World, located near Route 1, was forced to close on Saturday Dec. 3 after discovering that vandals broke a heavy steel panic bar on a door to the rink's lobby area.
The panic bar, with steel blocks on either end measuring about four to five inches thick, and its hinges were broken, said owner Gerry Breen.
"The panic bars that go across the doors, they broke one of them right in half, they pulled the armature right out of the door," said Breen. "All this is all steel, so this isn't something that's done lightly, it's done with a lot of force."
The cost to replace the bars, on just one door, was around $1,000, Breen said.
An employee who usually works in the lobby area was not present that day, according to Breen. A security detail was present at the rink, but was working about 14 feet away, separated by a set of closed doors, from where the damage occurred.
"If they heard any noise they would have thought it came from outside," the owner said. "But there had to have been extensive noise because they broke the steel bars."
Breen believes the culprits are "kids" and can be found with assistance from the rink's patrons.
"I'm sure there were people that saw that," he said. "There were a few hundred people in here that were leaving at that time. I'm just trying to get somebody to come forward and say what they saw."
The rink's phone number is 781-233-9507. A cash reward has been advertised for information about the people responsible.
Click here to follow Daily Voice Middlesex and receive free news updates.
