Playground Stolen From Manitoba Child Care Center

Children at a Headingley preschool are wondering where will they play after a brazen theft in their outdoor playground, the child-care centre says.

A large wooden playset was missing from Guiding Minds Montessori School grounds before the centre opened early Friday morning, owner Angie Izzard said.

The woman said she was taking the garbage out at around 6:45 a.m. when she noticed someone had "plowed over" the playground fence … and that the main playground structure had disappeared.

"I was like, How?" she said, adding that stealing the large structure was surely no child's play.

"How can they steal such a large item when it was like literally bolted?" Izzard said.

"We had a 100-kilometre hour winds and it didn't blow over, so how could someone just like go away with such a large item, and why?"

The wooden playset the Guiding Minds Montessori says was stolen from their property. (Submitted by Angie Izzard)

The private preschool opened its doors in the rural municipality west of Winnipeg nearly three years ago, Izzard said.

She said getting a new playset and fixing the fence could cost the business "a few thousand dollars" an onerous amount for the recently established institution.

Izzard said children had lots of questions when she told them a "bad man" had taken their playset.

"Parents were just like, 'What?'" she said.

"There was just shock. Like, how could someone even be this low to steal from, one, a school, and children? It's not like adults play on the structure, it's little kids."

Izzard said the preschool will also set up security cameras in the aftermath of the incident.

She said the incident has been reported to RCMP, who have visited the site to take a look.

"They've seen things, but they said they've never seen this," she said.

This story is covered in this week’s Keep Canada Weird news roundup.