NANAIMO — “They took everything from our game day headsets right down to the popsicles in the deep freeze.”
VI Raiders general manager Josh Williams said it’s the third major setback for the football program in the last 12 months, and by far the biggest.
A break-in to their Caledonia Park practice facility on Wall St., overnight Wednesday, Aug. 31 into Thursday, Sep. 1 cleared out around $50,000 worth of team equipment, tools, replacement parts, food and drinks.
“We noticed the metal door frame was busted right off the brick wall,” Williams told NanaimoNewsNOW. “They had taken some hammers and basically had to chisel at the brick to try to get in and the amount of stuff taken was unreal.”
The theft was discovered early Thursday morning with Williams and City of Nanaimo workers quickly on scene.
In addition to the headsets and freezies, two large rolling tool bins, specialty replacement parts for equipment, jerseys, bags, game day footballs, an air compressor, BC Lions-branded tents, 10 flats of Gatorade and boxes of granola bars were all cleared out.
Williams estimated the thieves would have easily loaded up at least one truck, if not multiple vehicles.
“It’s a big, metal door, reinforced steel door frame and for them to even get at the lock inside of it, they chiselled away at the brick. This wasn’t a quick ‘hey, let’s smash out a lock’, it would have taken them a good half hour or hour to even get in the building.”
The theft comes after a break-in to a storage container at their former practice facility in Comox Gyro Park in September 2021 and a mid-July 2022 fire which damaged some equipment at the tower overlooking Caledonia Park.
Inside the building was equipment the team had collected to improve conditions for the players.
“We had stockpiled and built up stuff over the past four or five years as best we could to outfit close to 100 guys, and now with the theft of all these helmets and shoulder pads and a lot of the stuff we’d been building up is totally wiped out.”
Now, in the middle of a season, the team is figuring out how to move forward.
Williams said they have enough equipment to finish the year out, however any damage to gear through game action might stress the resources they have left.
He also said they might need to borrow the odd game ball.
The non-profit organization’s future beyond this season though? Very murky. Williams said this latest incident cut the legs out from underneath the team.
“It’s hard enough for our guys to run a practice with people breaking down bikes, wigging out down there outside of the change rooms…I don’t know of any other teams in Canada that have to deal with the stuff we’re constantly dealing with.”
The Raiders begin a three-game home stand on Saturday, Sep. 10 hosting the Valley Huskers, before welcoming Langley and Westshore on subsequent Saturdays.
Nanaimo RCMP confirm an investigation is underway however there are few leads.
Anyone with information on the theft is encouraged to contact Nanaimo RCMP at 250 754 2345, quoting file number 2022-30744.
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