A high school baseball team in Orange County is raising money after thieves broke into lockers and escaped with thousands of dollars worth of equipment.
The theft happened on March 24 at Los Amigos High School in Fountain Valley in the early morning hours.
The suspects were captured on surveillance cameras jumping a fence onto school property and using bolt cutters to break into a storage container containing the players’ lockers and valuable equipment.
When the team checked in for practice on Monday morning, that’s when they realized they had lost everything.
“Everything. I mean they wiped us out,” said Melo Guess, the baseball team’s head coach. “Every bag, glove, cleats, part of our uniforms, all the kids’ sunglasses. They took everything. We’re devastated. A lot of tears flowed, a lot of emotion.”
Guess said the students and their parents worked hard to pay for the equipment which is generally expensive and means a lot to the players who use them every day.
“I think it’s an extension of us, the type of gear we had and what it meant to us,” said J.P. Gutierrez, the team’s captain. “I can’t even think of someone who would do something like this.”
The team is focused on bouncing back quickly as they continue practicing with borrowed equipment amid growing support from their local community.
“I’ve gotten a lot of phone calls from people in the community looking to donate to the program,” said Todd Nirk, principal of Los Amigos High School. “They saw what happened and they felt for the kids.”
Ralph Dominguez, another coach, said stolen equipment also included bats, catcher’s gear, uniforms and training gear. Some of the stolen items had the Los Amigos logo on them.
The incident comes as the Lobos have turned their current season around. After getting off to a 1-5 start, they’ve ripped off nine wins in a row to get to 10-5. They currently sit in first place in the Garden Grove League, according to MaxPreps.
In the meantime, the players and school staff are hoping the culprits will be arrested soon before they target more victims.
“It’s a cowardly move to come here and steal from a bunch of kids who have worked so hard to be in the position that they are in,” Guess said.
The mother of a Lobos player has started a GoFundMe to help the team purchase new equipment. The link can be found here.