Wrestlers property stolen at Waunakee sectionals

All Blue · February 20, 2016, 11:42:00 PM

Just sayin...At somepoint during the semis today at Waunakee, our wrestlers had a bunch of personal property stolen from their locker room. This consisted of shoes, money, car keys and clothes. We had wrestlers that had to leave the school in bare feet as their street shoes were also taken!!! These kids were threreto wrestle...and not worry about the personal property that was in the locker room. One of the pairs of wrestling shoes stolen was a $500.00 pair of retro Nike shoes....not that the value matters, but something has to be done as far as security at these events! Just looking for your input....the wrestlers were told that their gear was to be in the assigned locker room because of space constraints. Our wrestlers are of high character and will overcome this....but it still sucks!! Any thoughts???

imnofish · February 20, 2016, 11:43:38 PM

Were they allowed to bring their own padlocks?

wrestler6 · February 20, 2016, 11:54:45 PM

thats pretty shi**y... theres always someone somewhere you go that has to ruin it but never seen anything that bad! Shouldnt have to worry about padlocks imo usually is someone in the locker room but it sucks you have to worry about that or deal with that after a good hard day of wrestling!!! hope someone is found for that.. its terrible

All Blue · February 21, 2016, 12:00:11 AM

Yes...I believe they were allowed padlocks but, in all the years of wrestling this has really never been an issue at a large tournament. I know im setting myself up here, but who goes to a high school wrestling event to steal other peoples stuff? Isn't there a more important task at hand? Again, I realize that if something can go wrong it probably will and no our kids didnt lock up their stuff, but that still doesnt make it accepable. How humiliating...rights right and wrongs wrong

joeski · February 21, 2016, 12:26:53 AM

To this your first reply is, were they allowed to bring padlocks, maybe kids should be able to believe that there crap will still be there at the end of the day. Grew up in the wrong era I guess. Still think you should be able to go to bed with your windows open.

maggie · February 21, 2016, 12:36:07 AM

sounds like a total break down in security...sad...

whatever · February 21, 2016, 04:23:35 AM

An ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure.

cedarboy1 · February 21, 2016, 05:38:35 AM

Please tell me they have cameras right outside the locker room and will be able to identify the thiefs!

Mack · February 21, 2016, 05:46:26 AM

I am so sorry. I will never understand this stuff. I am glad you posted. Getting the word out may help track down the criminal (s).

Also unfortunate, because otherwise Waunakee ran a really organized event.

I honestly didn't know that $500 tennis shoes existed.

Mustang Fan · February 21, 2016, 07:14:13 AM

I honestly didn't know that $500 tennis shoes existed.

Or someone would pay that kind of money for tennis shoes

Either way, the whole theft thing really sucks, I expected wrestlers to act differently, if in fact fellow wrestlers were the thieves!!

Say-Say · February 21, 2016, 07:50:35 AM

Sorry, that is a bummer. I would make sure to contact the host school's coach, AD, and principal. They should be aware of that. Waunakee should be able to pull camera footage from outside of the locker room. If you have any idea when it happened, they can look at that time-frame.

imnofish · February 21, 2016, 07:51:27 AM

By asking about the wrestlers' ability to lock up their belongings, I was neither implying that they were at fault, nor excusing the thefts. Obviously, the thefts were disgusting. The OP was asking for our thoughts, which I assumed could include potential solutions to protect wrestlers in the future. Realistically, schools are not going to hire security to monitor the locker rooms. Locking the doors is impractical, since kids need to get to their own belongings throughout the day. Padlocks are the most logical solution. This problem is nothing new, but it still stinks when it happens. When I was in high school, back in the 60s, we had something similar happen. Dishonesty is not a sign of the times; it is a sign of human imperfection, which has always existed. The good news is that most people are still honest, as our kids demonstrated throughout the season. I hope these kids get their stuff back and the perpetrator has to "face the music."

Mack · February 21, 2016, 08:37:33 AM

Hey All Blue...I hope you can find a way to contact all the schools/coaches. The coaches need to tell their athletes to be on the look out. I am guessing those shoes are not common, and easily identifiable. If it is a kid who took this stuff, they may wear those shoes.

This actually happened to one of our wrestlers this week. His shoes were stolen out of the locker room, and after a few days the boy who stole the shoes had the bright idea to wear them to school. Some people.

Again..feelin' sorry for all the kids who's stuff was taken.

maggie · February 22, 2016, 08:03:06 AM

just wondering, has any of this stuff been located as of yet?...i sure hope it was just misplaced and found by an honest person....

MarkK · February 22, 2016, 08:22:32 AM

I've noticed this a few times this year. I think we had another incident like this at another tournament. These are crimes of opportunity. Remove the opportunity. I hope they are able to recover their property.