Football team burglarized while playing in Clairton
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Clairton school officials said they don't want their Bears' football team to take the rap for thefts this month from a visiting team.
The visitors from Bentworth High School Oct. 8 learned after their team was trounced, 52-0, by the undefeated Clairton Bears that the visitors' locker room was burglarized during the game.
The incident is the least concern of the Bears' next opponent from Fort Cherry.
"That could happen anywhere. There's been times that same thing happened at our school," Brent Fleissner, athletic director and head basketball coach at Fort Cherry, said of the thefts.
Clairton Superintendent Lucille Abellonio said the district will compensate the Bentworth players and staff after a final inventory of stolen items, and their values, are calculated.
"We've been working with Bentworth to find out what was stolen," Dr. Abellonio said. "Then we can work something out with the [Bentworth] school district."
She said the thefts resulted from a scheduling problem. The custodian who normally locks the locker room door after the teams take the field was off, and his replacement was not aware that the door lock was his responsibility.
"The [Bentworth] team also didn't realize they could have closed it," Dr. Abellonio said.
Clairton police said an investigation showed the thefts were a crime of opportunity because the door had been left open.
"We warn our teams everywhere we go," said Mr. Fleissner. "We'll make sure we lock everything up. We'll do that everywhere on the road."
The items reported stolen from the Bentworth players include jewelry, an iPod, money and car keys.
First Published October 19, 2010 12:00 am
