The St. Albert Minor Baseball Association (SAMBA) says it has dealt with break-ins in the past, but nothing to this extreme.
The organization in the community directly north of Edmonton says roughly $30,000 worth of equipment — some rather niche — was stolen from their facility last Wednesday.
“You feel like you’ve been violated a little bit as an association,” President Brian Bourassa told Global News.
On the morning of May 14, Bourassa said when staff opened up the clubhouse, they found holes in the wall from the janitor’s room leading into the SAMBA office.
There, a safe had been tampered with. Staff checked the security tape, which showed someone breaking into the association’s fieldhouse with what appeared to be a crowbar.
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Another video (see in the player above) showed three people leaving the facility with a dog running behind them, taking off with what the association says is their stolen equipment.
Bourassa said they lost a projector, a few speakers, a ball flight monitor, a TV and a scoreboard controller.
The robbery took place just days before the organization hosted its annual tournament (the Larry Rindero Memorial) and Bouroussa said it didn’t stall current plans — it did, however, force them to go old school.
“We are running the tournament this weekend without a scoreboard. We’re having to use the old manual way with flipcharts, which takes away from the tournament a little bit,” Bourassa explained.
The loss leaves a dent in future plans.
The association will have to find a way to replace some of the equipment stolen in time for its fall programming.
“$30,000 to our association is a fair sum of money,” he said.
The association is working with their insurance company, as well as working on a plan to prevent future break-ins.
St. Albert RCMP say they are investigating the crime.
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