Twenty football players had belongings stolen on Friday night at the Manual-Eastern football game.

The Manual players used Eastern’s small gymnasium as a locker room. Sometime during the first half, five teenagers entered the locker room and took many of the football player’s items.

“When we left [the locker room], there was actually a police officer and assurance by the custodians that the area was locked and secured,” Manual Athletic Director David Zuberer said. “What we come to find out later was there were other doors into the small gymnasium that could’ve been unlocked after we played the first half of the game.”

The items stolen included phones, headphones, shoes, cash and wallets.

Manual’s team realized during half time that someone had been going through their belongings.

Zuberer said that he was concerned about how the team was going to react. “[I] was worrying about how our kids were going to approach the second half of the game… whether they were going to keep their composure, and they did,” Mr. Zuberer said. “They were great.”

After police reports were filled out, the thieves were caught. By the end of the night, three players had had their belongings returned to them and more was recovered over the weekend. However, the process of returning all the stolen materials is still underway.

Brennan Poole (10), a transfer student from Eastern, said that while he had never been the victim of thievery, he had friends who had been stolen from. “I feel like there is more crime at Eastern than at Manual,” Poole said.