Reward offered in fundraiser fireworks burglary

Details

Published on Monday, 25 June 2012 15:28

Dale Denwalt
Daily Elk Citian

Nearly $3,000 worth of fireworks were stolen from a school fundraiser stand sometime Sunday night, according to the group's sponsor.

The Beckham County Sheriff is investigating the burglary and may have a lead, said Gayla McClure.

She said that sometime between 9 p.m. and 5 a.m. Monday, one or more suspects broke the lock on the Elk City High School cheerleaders' fireworks stand.

"They had to have known what they were doing, because they didn't open the second stand, which didn't have anything in it. They just opened the one that had the fireworks in," McClure said. "There had to have been at least two or three [suspects] because they got the huge, big fireworks. There's no way with what they took that they could have carried them off. They had to have had a vehicle of some kind."

The fireworks stands are located on Seventh Street near south Van Buren Avenue. A next-door neighbor noticed the stand's door was open and called McClure. After calling the police, she had to break it to the girls.

"They are really upset. Why would people do something like this? It's just made them sick. And of course I bawled all morning," she said.

The cheerleaders' fireworks stand pays for everything they do all year long. They pay for locker decorations for players. They buy new pompoms. They also give money to the Cancer Society, to the Elk City Education Foundation and the Mayor's Toy Drive. Their only fundraiser of the year also pays for cheerleader scholarships, as well as food for their trips.

"Because of the burn ban last year, we didn't get to do any of that. Now," she said, "it seems like we can't catch a break. You know."

McClure is offering a reward worth $150 in fireworks to anyone who has information about the stolen fireworks or the person who committed the burglary.