UNLV’s Women’s Track Team flew into Albuquerque for a competition and ended up falling victim to thieves, and this isn’t the first time.
Last month, Senior Drea Austin and her fellow Rebels teammates were in town for the Mountain West Indoor Track and Field Championship. The night before the meet even started, the team’s two rental vans, which contained all their personal items and equipment, were broken into.
“They stole our MacBook Pros, our Beats headphones, our wallets, our car keys,” Austin said. “Then our spikes and all our equipment. So they took everything, basically we essentially needed for the weekend to run.”
The two vans were wiped clean.
The team was eating dinner at BJ’s Restaurant in Uptown when it happened.
“We had sat down for maybe 15 minutes,” Austin said. “We figured something was going on. We were at dinner, our coaches rushed out and we were like, ‘What’s going on?'”
“That’s how fast these guys are,” Officer Simon Drobik said. “Three guys cleared out two vans full of property. So it’s very unfortunate that they got their stuff stolen. So we want to make it a goal for us and UNMPD to get it back.”
It just so happens this isn’t the first time. This exact team has been hit by thieves in Albuquerque before.
“We had this happen to us two years ago. So we were kind of aware and kind of alert then, but coming in this year it just caught us off guard,” Austin said.
In 2016 for the same meet, the team had their van broken into at Uptown Mall, just across the street. Austin says they should have known better this time, and Albuquerque Police admit, it’s not a good look for the city.
“We feel for the teams that come through and UNLV got hit twice. We take it personally,” Officer Drobik said. “Obviously these are good kids coming into town to have fun and we want to get that property back to them.”
The women on the team said UNLV plans to reimburse them for some of the personal items that were stolen.
