School Pitching Machines Targeted in Rash of Thefts

High school coaches in Orange County and West Los Angeles now have more than bad umpires to worry about. Pitching machines are disappearing.

Police said Friday that they have started calling Westside-area schools to warn that an apparent burglary ring has been slicing through locks and latches to steal pitching machines and baseball and softball equipment.

The thefts, which began in Orange County, have netted thieves at least 25 machines and gear worth more than $40,000.

“We are all asking the same question: Who’s doing it and why?” said San Clemente High baseball coach Dave Gellatly. “It started as a few schools and has progressively gotten worse.”

On Thursday night, Santa Monica High became the fifth Westside high school to be struck since December.

Eight Orange County high schools also have been vandalized since last summer.

Kevin Brockway, Santa Monica High’s baseball coach, said equipment worth more than $10,000 – three pitching machines, gloves and balls – was stolen from a storage shed.

Beverly Hills, Culver City, Los Angeles University and Venice high schools also have been hit by pitching-machine thieves in the last two months.

“It’s definitely more than a coincidence,” said Det. Dave Martinez of the Los Angeles Police Department, who is investigating the theft of three machines from Venice High.

Coaches have speculated that the pitching machines have been taken to Mexico to be sold or else advertised on the Internet. They typically cost $1,000 to $1,500. But several coaches said their schools’ insurance deductibles were greater than the loss, and the money to replace the equipment would have to be raised.

At El Toro High in Lake Forest, where two batting machines disappeared in July, welders have installed a heavy-duty door on a secure room next to the baseball dugout, where the most valuable equipment is now kept.

“We have learned how to build the doors and locks,” said John Johansen, the school’s athletic director. “They’d have to blow it up to get in there.”

That theft apparently was the start of the spree in Orange County, which included thefts at Aliso Niguel, Laguna Beach, Mission Viejo, Santa Margarita and Trabuco Hills high schools.

San Clemente High lost $2,500 in gloves and equipment in January. At Capistrano Valley High in Mission Viejo, a storage shed was broken into in September, but a $5,000 pitching machine, which was hidden from view, was left untouched.

Johansen recommends that schools improve security.

“You have to think as a thief,” he said. “What are they willing to do? You don’t want to be cynical, but you have to think the worst.”