Sometime between 8:30pm Wednesday evening and 11am Thursday morning the Coquitlam Reds Baseball Club fell victim to a theft at their Mundy Park Clubhouse. Thieves gained access to the concession and equipment areas and made away with up to $8000 in gear including the club’s John Deere tractor, eight dozen new baseballs, hats, and uniforms. The thieves also ransacked the concession area, stole the deep fryer and all of the club’s food supplies for the upcoming months including meat, pop, Gatorade, chips, and candy. Even the ketchup and mustard were taken.
After a somber Thursday, made worse by a 13-0 loss to the Twins, things turned for the better on Friday as local and provincial media came forward and ran the story across the province. The Reds would like to thank the Coquitlam Now, Vancouver Sun, and Tri City News for their articles in print as well as CTV News (reporter Jon Woodward) and Global News (reporter Kristen Robinson) for running the story across the province on the evening and late night news. The Reds story, as communicate exceptionally well by players Max Hollingworth, Cameron Williams, Mark Trimble, and Curtis Taylor, in addition to Coaches Wes Taylor & Kyle Williams, and concession manager John Trimble, showed the general public the impact the theft had on the club’s operations. This media coverage led directly to the recovery of the club’s tractor late Friday evening as Coquitlam RCMP received a tip and recovered the tractor from a property in Coquitlam. Even before the recovery of the tractor, the local community was coming together to support the Reds. A bakery in Port Coquitlam offered to supply cupcakes for next Saturday’s DH against Victoria, while the Port Coquitlam Save-on-Foods has offered to help replenish the club’s concession supplies. The Reds appreciate this support from the community. The Reds would also like to thank Aydan Smith’s sister, Olivia, for her support in writing a press release and attracting media attention and John and Dawna Trimble for all their efforts in returning the concession to its pre-theft state. While the early hours of Thursday morning brought out the worst in our community, the events since, highlighted by community support, have demonstrated the very best our city of Coquitlam has to offer.
The Reds would very much like to recover the remainder of the stolen property and support the continued police investigation that hopefully will lead to an arrest and accountability for those involved. Anyone with information related to the theft is asked to call the Coquitlam RCMP.