Daly City: Youth soccer equipment stolen, vandalized

The Daly City chapter of the American Youth Soccer Organization, a youth soccer league, is scrambling to replace equipment that was stolen. The season starts next month. 

Tanya Santa Cruz, the assistant regional commissioner for AYSO  pointed to items found on the ground, including uniforms and portable ice packs. 

They were in a mobile storage unit that was broken into and vandalized. Some were stolen. Others strewn all over a field. 

The storage unit had been located on the property of Westmoor High School..

On Monday, a passerby noticed the unit had been broken into and vandalized.

"The door was kicked in. Here's the lock. They just kick it right off the track," says Santa Cruz as she pointed to a picture on her iPad showing the damage.
 
She showed KTVU photos taken of damage. Paint used to mark the soccer field were used for graffiti.
Boxes of paint, soccer balls, a generator, goal post setup and other equipment stored in the unit are gone.
 
"Pretty devastating 'cause if they stole the material some of that material was used for practice," says 14-year-old William Santa Cruz who was a player and is scheduled to become a referee this upcoming season. .
 
The AYSO league serves children from 3 to 19 from low and middle income families. One coach says its program is unique and often life changing. The focus is not on winning, but on player development. The theft hurts.
 
"Shocking....sad," says Oscar Lopez, a former player who's now a coach. "You see smaller-size balls so you know it's for little kids also and you still trash it It's just a heartless act."
 
"We just threw everything in here," says Santa Cruz as she showed KTVU the locker inside a storage rental facility where all the items that were not stolen are now kept.

"It's heartbreaking but we'll go on. These kids are not going to suffer we're going to go on.. We're gonna make do," says Santa Cruz.

She estimates the loss to range from $3,000 to $5,000.

A spokesman for Daly City Police says there's no surveillance video and they have no suspects...

The department is asking the public's help in catching whoever's responsible.

A gofundme has been set up to help recover from the loss.