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Tuesday, July 7, 2009

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Bahamas volleyball team robbed in Barbados By JUAN MCCARTNEY ~ Guardian Senior Reporter ~ juan@nasguard.com: The 16 members of The Bahamas national women's volleyball team were robbed of all their possessions they had in a locker room while they attempted to qualify for the world championships in Barbados over the weekend, according to the team's spokesperson. Team captain and Nassau Guardian sports reporter Kelsie Johnson said the team members lost thousands of dollars worth of goods as they played the Barbados national team on Friday night at the Garfield Sobers Stadium in Bridgetown. Johnson said the event took place at the stadium sometime between 7 p.m. and 10:30 p.m. Friday. "When we were warming up we had all of our stuff in the back of the bleachers where we were sitting down. They told us to move our bags and put them into the locker room," said Johnson, adding that the other team was not asked to remove its bags. "When they told us to move our bags, as captain I made sure that everybody was out of the locker room and that the door was locked. I then told the girl who was in charge of our room that the door was locked." After the game, which the team lost, Johnson said the players discovered that all of their possessions they brought to the stadium were missing. "We played the game, and then afterward, when I was being interviewed, one of my teammates came to me and she told me that all the bags were gone," Johnson said. "I looked at her and told her that I personally locked the room door and all the bags should have still been there. We thought that they probably moved the bags from that room to another room, but that wasn't the case. When we went to check, the door was kicked in. The door didn't have a dead bolt on it. It was like an everyday household lock on the door that they said they were using to store our things." Johnson said members of the team lost all of their jewelry, cash, credit cards, Mp3 players, laptop computers, books, watches and other items. She said the majority of the team's clothes were at the hotel during the game. Joseph Smith, the team's coach, and at least one of the players — Anishka Rolle — reportedly lost their passports with visas inside. The loss of the passports is expected to delay the return trip to The Bahamas, which was scheduled for tomorrow. Johnson said she now has no idea when the team can return. "We really have no idea at this point because passports are missing," said Johnson, explaining that the team also has very limited funds. "We got one or two donations so everybody was really happy with that, and we're really trying to put the robbery behind us." she said. Johnson said that the response of the authorities in Barbados has been somewhat lukewarm. "We called the police and they didn't reach until around 1:30 (a.m. Saturday). Everybody who was in the gym was just looking at us as if we were going crazy, saying that it wasn't true, that nobody ever steals around the gym and why would (robbers) only target the Bahamian team. We didn't get to bed until around five o'clock that morning," said Johnson, adding that the following day the team had a hard time catching up with the police. "The police came to the hotel that morning, but the persons at the front desk told them that we went to practice, which was not true. We were in the back eating breakfast. By the time we were able to give the statement it was around 4:30 (p.m.) or 5 (p.m.). The last statement got finished at 6:30 (p.m.). We reached the gym like a quarter to seven. They gave us like five minutes to warm up and then we had to hit the court." Johnson added: "At first nobody was really responsive, then one or two of the females from the Barbados volleyball team came and cooperated, but we didn't see the president of the Barbados Volleyball Association until around two o'clock Saturday afternoon." Johnson said the incident affected the team's performance at the qualifiers. "When we came here, our spirits just dropped because it's like coming back to a house where you lost everything," Johnson said. "When we came in everybody was hyped, but seeing the place where we actually got robbed affected us a whole lot." Thursday, June 18, 2009