Northwest Suburban Wrestling Team To Return To Tournament After Being Robbed Last Year
CHICAGO (CBS) -- A Chicago-area high school wrestling team, whose belongings were stolen while downstate for a tournament last year, is preparing to return to the same tournament this year and is hoping for a better time all the way around.
It was just last week that 29-year-old James Holmes was arrested for allegedly burglarizing as many as a dozen vehicles downstate, including the South Elgin High School wrestling team van last December.
Coach Mark Cameron said the team lost about $5,000 in team gear and personal belongings, some of which had been Christmas presents given to the teens just days before. They included smart phones and tablets.
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Cameron said the team had been in a restaurant in Collinsville during a break in the finals of the tournament when their van was broken into.
The coach said he will do some things differently this year than last, including parking the van in a more visible location. Last year, he said, he parked in back of the restaurant where it was less likely someone would have spotted someone burglarizing the van.
"I've learned lessons from it, and we'll do things a little bit different when we're down there just to make sure this doesn't happen again," he said.
Donations to a GoFundMe page were enough to replace everything stolen.
"I tell the kids, you can't stop bad things from happening, but the good thing was, we had so many people come out on the GoFundMe page and help us out," he said.
Coach Cameron said his team learned life lessons last year and that everything worked out in the end because of the kindness of strangers.
He said the team is going back to the same tournament because it's a good tournament and a good two days for his wrestlers to bond with one another.
