By: Young-In Seo & Anjalie Chauhan
After another typical day at sports practice, the female athletes got ready to leave the locker rooms. Just then, they stopped in their tracks as they suddenly got the feeling that something wasn’t right — their phones.
The issue with the cell phone theft in the girls’ locker rooms has been occurring periodically, particularly during the winter basketball and spring soccer seasons. Due to the thefts, the girls’ basketball, soccer, and lacrosse teams have been affected.
Thefts from the school’s athletic locker rooms are not unheard of, but these particular series of thefts were unusual as the suspects were rumored to be middle school students. However, the suspects’ identity cannot be revealed due to the fact that they are juveniles.
“The case is held quiet. I’m not going to put anyone out there for a mistake they made. Kids make mistakes and getting caught might help them out and make them start doing the right thing,” School Resource Officer Scott Davis said.
Last week, the suspects were caught and the phones were returned to their respective owners.
“We didn’t have any suspects at first. Things just came together, I just kept on working at it, as they say, I got lucky,” Davis said.
Although there is no confirmed motivation for the theft, Officer Davis speculates that the suspects stole the phones for their monetary values. Each smart phone is about two hundred dollars and the suspects would’ve have been able to sell them on eBay or other similar websites.
Due to the expensive prices of these phones, one may be charged with a felony, which is something most students don’t realize once they’ve committed theft.
“What a lot of kids don’t know is that if you steal one phone, if that value of the phone is over $200, that’s a felony,” said Officer Davis.
I wasn’t aware that stealing an item of over $200 is a felony either.” confirmed sophomore winter varsity basketball player Naomi Jaffe. “Most people think that a felony would mean something a lot more serious and not something like stealing phones.”
To prevent future thefts and petty crimes happening within the school, there are a few steps one can take.
“If you see someone where they’re not supposed to be, say something to them or if you’re scared, tell someone else, [like an] adult.” said Officer Davis. “If something seems out of the ordinary, most likely, it’s out of the ordinary.”
In addition to reporting suspicious behavior, Officer Davis stresses the importance of locking a locker properly and the lack of people who do it.
“I wasn’t that surprised when another incident occurred because honestly, not many people lock their lockers up.” Jaffe said.
“I will tell you that no locker that was locked up was broken into,” Officer Davis reported. “My biggest thing is, if you want it, love it, like it, lock it up.”
