Saticoy little league field is another victim of theft

Local little league baseball fields are dealing with theft. Hundreds of kids take the field every day at the Fritz Huntsinger Youth Sports Complex in Ventura, but this has been a tough season for Saticoy little league.

The league is recovering from not one but two burglaries in the past two months. League President Chris Corbett remembers when it started back in April when a pitching mound was stolen.

“We didn’t have a backup, said Corbett. “Graciously Ojai little league is letting us borrow a green mound until we can replace the one we lost.”

Then earlier this month thieves struck again. This time drilling open locks in the snack bar, taking the league’s cash registers and two iPads used to process purchases.

“They also took our portable radios that we use for communication on the field,” said Corbett. “They also took money out of our safe.”

$8,600 in cash and property was taken as well as nearly $22,000 in personal checks that was in the safe at the time. Fortunately there have been no reports of the checks being compromised.

This is just one of many local baseball fields hit by theft. Last week Santa Barbara Pony was a victim, so was Ventura Coastal Little League and more recently a team in Burbank.

“It’s absolutely ridiculous,” said Corbett. “Everyone here in this organization is a volunteer. Every dime that we make goes right back to the renting of these fields, to equipment for them to play and if a child needs a scholarship we step right up and let that child play for free. Stealing from kids is absolutely the worst.”