Ellet marching band's trailer recovered in Alliance after theft from Akron parking lot
If it had only been marked with the Ellet high school band's Marching Orangemen logo, then the man who stole the marching band's trailer may have been deterred.
Nonetheless, a sharp-eyed reader saw a news article regarding the theft and contacted Akron police.
"The suspect apparently sold it to a lady in Alliance, and she saw the news story that the trailer was stolen," said Don Zesiger, Akron Public Schools director of safety and security. "She contacted the Akron Police Department and made them aware of what happened. The suspects have been identified and warrants will be signed."
Further information from police was not immediately available.
Video surveillance footage shows a dark-colored pickup truck pulling into the parking lot behind Ellet High School as the sun was rising around 8 a.m. Saturday.
The pickup parked in front of the trailer and its driver started preparing it for towing.
About two minutes later, a white car also entered the parking lot and a man got out to apparently go for a walk on school grounds, which Band Director Adam Grom said is common for local residents.
About five minutes after that, the man in the truck hauled the trailer away.
Trailer served Marching Orangemen for more than 20 years
Grom said the Ellet Band Boosters bought the trailer in 2002 for about $6,500 and it's probably worth twice that today. He said the boosters had expected to be reimbursed through insurance, but noted it had been customized to haul uniforms and musical instruments.
"When we bought it, some of the very dedicated fathers retrofitted it with shelving and all that and we put instruments and uniforms and all that in there," he said. "Thankfully, it was empty this time of year."
Had the trailer been out during the regular season, he said it could have contained around 80 uniforms, worth about $30,000. Musical instruments that would have been locked inside after a Friday night game during football season would have boosted the loss to around $50,000.
"Come this fall, if we don't have a a replacement in line, that means every bit of gear that would have gone in the trailer − I'm talking, you know, all the marching percussion instruments − all that gear will end up going on the buses, twice as many buses."
The logo faded and was removed years ago and the white-washed hauler apparently was an attractive target.
"Maybe if it had a big, big logo on it, they wouldn't have wanted to take it, I would imagine," Grom said. "We loved driving it around and showing off and kind of bragging about it, but it reached the point where it was all dogged. It was peeling off and ugly and it was just easier to go ahead and and at the time we we didn't have the funds to replace the the logo, so we went ahead and painted it."
Eric Marotta can be reached at emarotta@gannett.com. Follow him on Twitter @MarottaEric.
This article originally appeared on Akron Beacon Journal: Ellet High School marching band's trailer recovered in Alliance
