December 5, 2005

Thieves steal Little League’s tractor

By Carol Rosen
Editor

Thanksgiving may start the season of giving, but in the case of the Cambrian Park Little League (CPLL), it was a case of taking. Thieves broke into a shed on the field at the former Steindorf School carting away a lawn tractor and some field maintenance tools.

Thieves broke into a Cambrian Park Little League shed at Steindorf School over the Thanksgiving weekend and stole a lawn tractor and some tools. Pictured are sections of the concrete fence. The league is offering a $500 reward for the return of the tractor or for information leading to the arrest and conviction of those involved in the theft.

The nonprofit Little League, which celebrates its 50th anniversary this year, typically enrolls about 450 children in its program. Parents and other volunteers run the program. No one is on staff. Although the league occasionally has to pay for an umpire, typically everyone—including the umpires—are volunteers.

“The Cambrian School District allows us to use their fields and in return we do field maintenance. We water, mow and pay for water, gas and garbage pickup. We also maintain the fields throughout the year. During the season, we use the tractor four to five times a week and in the off season about once or twice a week,” said Michael Cunniff, president of the Little League board.

The money to run the Little League comes from a variety of sources. About half or $40,000 to $50,000 comes from registration fees while the other half is from donations, snack shack profits and sponsorships. That $80,000 to $100,000 pays for equipment, uniforms, baseballs, maintenance and repairs (replacing sections of the field), utility bills, paint and food for the snack shack.

Every year, the league earmarks $3,000 to $7,000 for capital improvements. “That’s actually enough money to buy a new tractor,” said Cuniff, “but we’ve already committed it to buying new bleachers at one field.” The bleachers at the main Steindorf field were in very bad shape, he said.

Ida Price is the home field for CPLL’s junior and senior league (ages 13- 16) while the league uses Steindorf’s four fields for T-ball, minor and major divisions (ages 5-12). The theft occurred at the Steindorf facility at 3001 Ross Ave, sometime over Thanksgiving weekend.

“We believe the theft occurred in the middle of the night on Wednesday, Nov. 23, Thanksgiving eve. The school was empty and there was no one in the office complex on the other side of the concrete fence. A man walking his dog on Monday said he noticed the fence on Thursday morning. We filed a police report with the San Jose Police Department, Case Number 05-332-0270, Cuniff said.

The thieves used bolt cutters to get inside the locked shed, he added. It couldn’t have been an inside job, because a lot of volunteers have keys to that shed.

Inside was the John Deere LX173 lawn tractor. The thieves dismantled a section of the concrete fence (near the shed) between the ball fields and the back of an adjacent office complex. The shed lock was too strong to be cut so they cut through the cast iron handle of the shed apparently with bolt cutters. The tractor appears to have been pushed out of the shed and through the missing section of fence. CPLL assumes it was pushed out since the key is not left in the tractor.

It appears, the thieves then pushed it between the fence and the back of the office building down to the parking lot of the office complex. Several scrape marks were evident on the sidewalk at the end of the building. From there they loaded it onto a waiting trailer.

“Obviously, this was not a one-man job. The fence sections are very heavy and would require at least two, if not three people to lift. In addition to the tractor, a couple of small tools [that are valued at under $100 total] were also stolen,” Cuniff said. Oddly enough, the thieves left a $200 ladder.

A new tractor will cost the CPLL almost $5,000, and “we’ll be lucky if our insurance covers 25 percent of the cost. We are a nonprofit entity and we can’t afford big financial hits like this.” The tractor is worth about $1,500, he added, and the league’s insurance is $250 deductible.

“We are offering a reward of $500 for the return of our tractor or information leading to the conviction of the person/people involved. We would also like to ask the community for donations to replace the tractor. Any information regarding the incident or questions about making a donation can be directed to Cuniff and the Cambrian Park Little League at info@cpllbaseball.org or e-mailed to: info@cpllbaseball.org. Anyone willing to donate can send a check to the league at CPLL, 2059 Camden Ave, #280, SJ, CA 95124.