Youth Sports Facilities Robbed Multiple Times

"Why would you affect the children in this manner? Because they're the ones that are getting the short end of it."

The storage room and concession stand at a Fontana park are the latest victims of a string of burglaries hitting youth sports facilities in the area over the past two weeks.

The buildings at these facilities at Ralph Lewis Park are used by the Fontana AYSO, a non-profit youth soccer organization.

Lolita Harper, a volunteer with RCA ACE Softball League based out of Red Hill Park, said the crime is devastating.

"I'm speechless over the fact that someone would even do such a thing to a nonprofit organization," she said.

Police believe the thieves were looking for cash and when they couldn't find any, they took what they could carry, leaving behind thousands of dollars in damage.

"As volunteers, we work hard and it hits us even harder because we know how much work we put into it for these kids," Ana Bernier, a volunteer for AYSO Fontana, said. "It affects the kids the most."

The suspects also tried to break into the concession stand, but an alarm seemed to have scared them away.

Because concession stands provide a lot of revenue for all of the teams, there's an urgent need to repair the damage before softball season starts next week.

"That hurt significantly due to the fact we are able to keep a low registration cost because we do have a lot of revenue raise from our snack bar that we're not gonna be able to operate just yet unfortunately," said Kendra Aleman of the RCA ACE Softball League.

"I don't even have the words," Bernier said. "Why would you affect the children in this manner? Because they're the ones that are getting the short end of it."

Since the crimes, police have stepped up overnight patrols around parks with youth sports facilities.

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