Thousands Of Dollars Worth Of Gear Stolen From Del Campo Baseball Team
FAIR OAKS (CBS13) — Del Campo High School head baseball coach Kevin Dawidczik says thieves used industrial tools over Christmas break to steal equipment from their storage sheds.
The coaches and players are now working to replace it all before the start of the season.
"They literally had some sort of a tool to slice where the lock goes. Like it's crazy, I've never seen all that," Dawidczik said.
Coach D believes the thefts took place over the past three days and that thieves used wheelbarrows to shuttle the stolen goods across the baseball fields and park. It's not the kind of stealing the baseball coach is accustomed to.
"We had just this order of bats, so I had seven bats in here. I had three brand new coaches' fungos that I was going to give as gifts to my coaches. We had a couple of buckets of baseballs which I thought was an odd thing for them to take out there," Dawidczik said.
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Other sheds were targeted as well. The baseball team lost two lawnmowers and a three-wheeler with a power edge. Dawidczik estimates the loss to be anywhere from $8,000 to $12,000.
The loss comes at a time the team was hoping to buy new gear and update equipment, but now they have to find a way to replace what was lost.
"Were a completely self-funded program. The district doesn't give us any money and we get about $200 dollars from Boosters. We rely heavily on our parents and players to fundraise," Dawidczik said.
Lucky for the Cougars, the community has stepped in to help with organizations already confirming donations of balls and bats.
Coach D says plenty of people have also reached out on social media.
The team has uniforms and other gear stored inside the school, so at least they have enough to play the season resumes in just a few weeks.
They say the 2020 season won't be impacted, they'll just have to make do with what they have left and rely on fundraising efforts to replace what was stolen.
