Thieves break into Little League office and run away with dreams

Last Tuesday the Pahrump Valley Little League building at Ian Deutch Park was burglarized according to Lou Banuelos, president of the Little League. He said he got the news that the crime had happened while he was on a trip to Elko.

He said the criminals, who are still at large, pried open the bottom floor office door, breaking the doorjamb on the dead bolt.

They also broke into the second story office and stole 12 pairs of shoes, bat bags, bats, socks and baseballs. The amount of the theft came to about $1,200.

“There are no leads. This usually happens every year about this time. Why would kids carry pry bars? That is what was used to open up the door. That is pretty scary, but then why would an adult graffiti the walls? That does not make any sense, but you never know. They also tried to break into the snack bar, but they could not get into it. They also tried to break into the girls softball snack bar and could not get into it,” he said.

Banuelos said the theft would not break Little League, but it did hurt the organization.

“Everything was replaceable. The league has got to replace it. It does hurt, every time you lose an asset. It’s what it is,” Banuelos conceded.

He said it may happen every year, but the league has paid for better security.

For example, in the past the crooks got into the windows upstairs so the town replaced the windows with the roll-down security shutters.

“It’s tougher to get in. The place is alone at night. There is a lot of riff-raff around, to be nice about it. With that being said, someone could get bored late at night and get the idea to break in,” he said.

Banuelos added all the repairs have been made after the suspects “broke the heck out of the door.”

“We keep very little up there. There is no money kept up there and I think they were looking for money because they threw all the paperwork on the ground. They didn’t vandalize the computers, they could have tipped them over. They filled up some bat bags and off they went,” Banuelos said.

He said since the season has come to an end the league will conduct fundraisers at the beginning of next year to replace the loss.

Banuelos posted his sadness on his Facebook on the day after the theft.

“I hope the word gets out that whoever is guilty of this feels a little remorse. Seriously, a youth sports program, how do you vandalize that?”