A north-east golf course was the victim of an attempted break-in at the weekend.
Golfers and staff at McDonald Golf Club in Ellon noticed two doors into the clubhouse had been damaged on Sunday morning.
On further inspection, they realised that someone had tried to pry the doors open overnight in an attempt to gain access to the property.
It is believed that they had targeted the fruit machine, which can be seen from outside the building after being recently moved due to Covid-19 restrictions.
Bar manager Tracy Eagar revealed that the club was relieved that the attempt to break-in had failed.
She said: “We noticed that the doors were damaged on Sunday morning but first thought that one of the golfers had hit them with a trolley.
“However, on closer inspection, you can see that someone had tried to jimmy them open in an attempt to get into the clubhouse.
“It’s quite noticeable on one of the doors but they didn’t manage to get in which we are quite relieved about.
“Police have told us that it does not look like a professional job as they failed to make it past the doors.”
It is believed the thief used some sort of tool in an attempt to get into the building but failed to do so.
The golf club has been left with the cost of fixing the damage to the doors.
Police have been doing door-to-door inquiries at the houses surrounding the golf course in an attempt to find the suspect or suspects.
Tracy added: “It could have been a lot worse if they had managed to break-in but no money is kept in the tills overnight so they would have probably targeted the bandit (fruit machine).
“We are going to be installing more CCTV camera at the clubhouse to make sure something like this does not happen again.
“We’ve also moved the bandit to another location so that it is not as easily seen from outside.
“We hope the police can catch the culprit as soon as possible.”
Police launched a social media appeal for information, calling on residents of the town who may have CCTV or saw anything suspicious to get in touch with them.