Locker room break-in
So when the men’s basketball team’s Centennial Center locker room was broken into on Feb. 8, the team was caught off guard.
Redshirt freshman Marvin Harris Jr. took a well-timed restroom break, during team practice, only to discover two uninvited guests in the locker room.
“We were practicing and I came in to use the bathroom and they were just going through Mike Ross’s wallet and I was like, ‘What are y’all doing?’ and they were like, ‘Oh we’re looking for something’,” Harris said.
After informing the team of the break-in, Harris and the rest of the players ran back to the locker room to assess the damage. The team then took off running in search of the thieves.
“When we came back they were gone so that’s when we went outside, and we couldn’t find them for the first couple of minutes,” Harris said.
Having split up, the men’s basketball team was able to track down the two Early College students, who were hiding in the parking lot under a white Isuzu Rodeo. Then the team kept the juveniles from running off until Public Safety could arrive.
Sergeant Nick Reonas was the officer to respond to the call. Upon arrival, Reonas searched the two troublemakers and discovered some cash in their pockets and few cell phones in the general vicinity but not the all the missing items.
Another pair had taken the rest of the stolen money and cell phones before the team found out about the break-in.
“There were actually two more that had already left and that’s where a lot of the items that were taken were, with the other two, they weren’t with the two I found,” Reonas said.
Following an investigation, all the stolen property was returned, except for one cell phone, which the parents of the children compensated the player it belonged to.
“We ended up having a total of five cell phones missing and also a sum of cash around $250 somewhere in there,” Reonas said. “Everything was retrieved or paid back or the person was reimbursed for it.”
Currently, the four students have not been charge with any crimes because all the belongings and cash has been returned or the rightful owners compensated.
Harris feels that the four should not be let go without any sort of punishment due to their actions.
“Something should be done,” Harris said. “They shouldn’t just get off the hook for stealing and then they lied the whole time to try and get out of it.”
Men’s basketball Coach Terry Sellers has the same kind of attitude regarding the juveniles being let go.
“They need to learn that there are consequences for those actions and if you do those kind of things you will be punished,” Sellers said. “With these young kids it might save them later on.”
Because they were part of the Early College Program here on campus, the two caught in the locker room have been banned from all GCSU property except for Kilpatrick Education Center to attend school.
Sellers is using this break-in as a learning experience in terms of locker room security.
“It was a wake up call to be a lot more careful about that locker room door, making sure that it’s locked,” Sellers said.
Sellers is going to try and install an automatic locking door with a keypad on the locker room to increase security of players’ valuables.
“Until that time, I was going to go to Wal-Mart and buy an inexpensive safe and put cell phones, wallets, whatever [in the safe] until we really get better security,” Sellers said.
The team remains in shock that their locker room and belongings would be the target of a crime.
“I never would have thought that anybody would just go in the locker room because that’s our home when we’re here. We treat it like a home,” Harris said.
Freshman Mike Ross was just as surprised as Harris at the break-in.
“I really didn’t see it coming, I mean just a normal day at practice and then – practice over, we got robbed,” Ross said.
Posted by Colonnade Archives
on Feb 20 2009. Filed under News.
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