Little league theft: Equipment stolen from South Mountain Little League

PHOENIX - "It was calculated. They knew what they were doing. It wasn't silly kids, unfortunately, it was grown adults," Monique Guerrero said.

This door has secured every valuable piece of property owned by Arizona's oldest little league field for more than 60 years until Saturday morning, when players, parents, and coaches arrived at South Mountain Little League Field for season tryouts and discovered the locks to their facilities were pried off and all of the equipment was gone.

"Equipment in the snack bar, such as snowcone machines, nacho cheese machine, food, drinks... things that we've had in inventory," Guerrero said. "Those items are earmarked with our small acronym, so it's hard to believe that they think they can just take it and just utilize it."

The thieves also took field equipment belonging to over 20 little league teams, all while completely trashing the place. They also broke into a shed behind the concession stand, taking off with even more property.

(Cristobal Diaz Leon)

"They took two riding lawn mowers from us -- one was a riding lawn mower to help us maintain all three fields and the other one we use for parts," Guerrero said. "Weed eaters, tools, you name it -- anything we use to line the field before games. They also took baseball equipment from that[sic] fields, pitching machines."

The league claims nearly $15,000 worth of property was stolen sometime between Wednesday and Saturday morning.

(Cristobal Diaz Leon)

Police are still looking for those involved.

"Not sure why, not sure why. It's just silly," Guerrero said.

Meanwhile, the community is still devastated by who and why anyone would steal from children. South Mountain Little League parents and coordinators are trying to get as much help in gathering funds, so what was stolen can be quickly replaced before the start of the season.

South Mountain Little League GoFundMe
https://www.gofundme.com/f/south-mountain-little-league