Gift baskets for Concord Little League silent auction stolen

CONCORD, Calif. (KTVU) - For the 350 boys and girls playing Concord American Little League and their parents, the season is getting off to a start that no one saw coming.

"Literally, I felt like someone had punched me in the stomach," said league treasurer Cindy Bates.

As the little league was preparing for its annual fundraiser about two weeks ago, Bates walked into one of the storage units. And her heart sank.

Missing were five of 26 gift baskets families had made to be used in a silent auction.

"There were signed footballs. There were signed baseballs. There were tickets, vouchers for tickets," said Bates.

One of them was a date night basket that had a real nice bottle of champagne. That was gone, 

The league figures the  five baskets combined would have brought in at least $1,500.

"Everything goes back into the fields we try to take care of. I have a team of volunteers working every day to making sure the kids can play," said league president Rick Munoz.

It is unclear how the thief or thieves got in to the locked unit. There was no sign of forced entry. And there are no security cameras in the area. The league did file a police report. But there is not a lot of evidence to go on.

Each stolen basket contained a different theme.

"I was angry. I was sick to my stomach. I knew how hard the parents worked to get all that together. It was disturbing," said Bates.

The league officials had some harsh words for whoever took the baskets.

"How dare you. You know what you did. What you took away from in terms of serving the community," said Munoz.

The league officials aren't sure how they will make up for the lost money. But they say they will be installing new security cameras.