MIDLAND, Texas — On Thursday, May 2, a girls' softball team from Keller ISD came to Midland, TX from North Texas for a playoff game that was just hours away, but when the team went to their charter bus to grab their gear, $26,583.86 worth of equipment was stolen.
"So, I think a lot of it initially was just kind of shock and upset and fear of how we're going to get this game handled. But the coaching staff came together, and we just said 'hey, you know, equipment can be bought you know, we can replace equipment, everyone's safe. That runs okay, you know let's shift our mindset a little bit,'" said Jessica Paul, Assistant girls' softball coach at Keller High School.
The parents of the Keller students were trying their best to help the students recover from the devastating event.
"Our parents at Keller, two are just absolutely incredible," said Paul. All the dads got together and went to Dick's and got batting gloves and got extra personal items and mouth guards and all the little stuff that you don't think that you need that they were able to pick up at Dick's today too, which was shout out to Dick's too, for helping us out too."
The city of Midland also tried to help the Keller students by donating equipment to the team.
"The city, the community of Midland has been great. We really appreciate it. Our parents have worked together, and we were able to locate one of the bags, like we said, and it's been a group effort, but that's what being a team is all about. So, you gotta be a team to get through the tough times and get through the good times as well," said Paul.
The team was able to recover helmets, personal items and a few bags all thanks to the city of Midland and the parents of the Keller students.
The softball game did proceed, but just got postpone to 8 p.m. at Legacy High School.
The search for the stolen equipment did continue and one item helped tremendously during the hunt. An Apple Air Tag was on one of the stolen bags and helped the recovery of the stolen equipment.
On Friday, May 3, six bags were located in an apartment complex off of Andrews Highway.
On Saturday, May 4, numerous bats, gloves and several bags were located on the side of the road near the intersection of US Hwy 385 and Loop 338.
This occurrence has been reported as a first as busses have not been a specific target in the past three years.
"In the three years working as a property detective, this is the first theft from a charter bus that I have seen," said Stewart Doreen, Public Information Officer for the City of Midland. "To my knowledge, this is [also] the first time a high school team has been targeted in the three years I have worked property crimes."