$6,000 worth of baseball equipment stolen from team at Channel Islands High School in Oxnard

Head coach Ronnie Marin said someone broke the door to the team's clubhouse and stole bats, gloves and other equipment.
Wednesday, May 10, 2023
OXNARD, Calif. (KABC) -- An Oxnard high school baseball team was forced to play with borrowed equipment after $6,000 worth of their gear was stolen.

The break-in happened at Channel Islands High School late last month.
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Head coach Ronnie Marin said someone broke the door to the team's clubhouse and stole bats, gloves and other equipment.

"Just violated and just thinking that it's a sad thing that happened," he told Eyewitness News.

Marin said the team had two games left in their season at the time of the theft and their opposing teams - Rio Mesa and Oxnard high schools -donated equipment in a show of great sportsmanship.

"That was really humbling that they just gave it to us before the game started so the kids were all happy and they used it during the game," said Marin.



Meanwhile, the school is working to upgrade its cameras and surveillance systems around campus.
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"It seems like they put a lot of effort to get the equipment and so all we can do is make sure that our surveillance is working the next time," said Athletic Director Phyra Prum.

The team is also trying to raise money to replace the equipment.

"It's frustrating, it's disappointing and really disheartening because it really took someone to do this to our students, and they knew exactly what they were doing," said Charter Islands Principal Marianne Ramos. "They knew exactly what impact it was going to have on our school and our students and it still happened."

Anyone with information on the theft is urged to contact authorities.



CORRECTION: An earlier version of this story identified one of the area schools as Real Mesa, but the school is Rio Mesa.
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