Which Way Did He Go?
Somebody stop that coach.
By JONATHAN LLOYD
Updated 10:26 AM PST, Wed, Oct 28, 2009
The fake coach who stole from an Israeli basketball team's locker room might be a serial sports/salsa band thief.
Authorities said Tuesday that the same man might be behind a theft involving Mexican soccer giants Chivas de Guadalajara and a salsa band.
"We think this same guy was involved in two other incidents," Lt. Paul Vernon, supervisor of detectives at the Los Angeles Police Department's Central Station, told City News Service. "The Mexican soccer team -- Chivas -- and a salsa band. One was Sept. 22. We think this guy is posing as part of these groups to gain pass keys to their hotel rooms."
Chivas Guadalajara visited the Rose Bowl in September. They played an exhibition match against Chivas USA.
Vernon did not provide details of the thefts, but they might involve the same well-dressed jerk who -- on Oct. 20 -- carried a clipboard into a locker room at Staples Center and stole $22,000 worth of items from members of an Israeli basketball team. The squad was in LA for an exhibition game last week against the Clippers.
Not just any exhibition game. They were raising money to help orphans in Israel.
Detectives are reviewing surveillance video of that heist. They said the man also carried what looked like a credential.
"There's no arrest yet," Lt. Albert Gavin said Tuesday. "We're still working the case."
The theft was discovered at halftime of the Clippers' Oct. 20 game against Maccabi Electra Tel Aviv. Investigators said the team was missing $15,000 worth of U.S. currency and more than $7,000 worth of watches and other jewelry.
But the LAPD wasn't told about the theft until after the game.
"There was a ball boy who came back into the locker room, and he saw this guy in the suit," Vernon said. "He was holding a clipboard and he had a press pass or credential hanging out of his pocket."
Detectives plan to create a composite sketch, which might be available this week
More proof that life isn't always fair: The game was part of the Israeli team's tour to benefit a facility in northern Israel that shelters nearly 7,000 orphaned, impoverished, underprivileged and new-immigrant children and bills itself as the world's biggest orphanage.
Oh... and the Clippers won the game, 108-96.
First Published: Oct 27, 2009 7:11 AM PST
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