Stolen gear returned to Penguins
ParaSport organization helps children and adults with physical disabilities
It was good news — mostly — for Brock Niagara Penguins when they learned police had recovered some of their stolen ParaSport equipment this week.
Club founder Karen Natho said members weren’t expecting to see any of the equipment again after the theft in St. Catharines in February and were thrilled when police called Tuesday.
“I was totally surprised. We had written off the equipment because it was a good two months later,” she said, giving kudos to police and a citizen who called in a tip.
“The bad news is the individual did some serious damage to the majority of the equipment and didn’t seem to have a purpose for doing it. That’s unfortunate.”
The penguins are the only ParaSport club in the region and is made up of 60 adult and kid athletes with physical disabilities.
ParaSport equipment can be hundreds or thousands of dollars, so athletes rely on the volunteer not-for-profit organization for training.
Natho said one of the two $800 trainers that were stolen was found and usable and a $6,000 recumbent handcycle bike seemed to be in tact.
But a second handcycle was in at least eight pieces and looks like it was cut with a saw, while a $6,000 racing chair was broken into five pieces with back tires stripped off. Neither were salvageable.
Natho said she dropped the pieces off at Liberty Bicycle to see if any parts can be saved for use in the future.
Fortunately, she said, the club received an outpouring of support from the community after their storage trailers had been broken into while parked at Port Weller Community Centre on Bogart Street.
An estimated $22,000 of equipment was reported stolen or damaged.
The club’s goal of raising $10,000 to buy used equipment to replace some of the stolen items was reached.
Because of the police work this week, which included the arrest of a St. Catharines man, the club now has an extra usable handcycle.
“We are excited because we had a wait list for our handcycling program,” Natho said. “We didn’t have enough bikes. “Now, because we met our fundraising goals, we have an extra bike and can offer it to someone else who’s been wanting to get it.”
Like other athletic clubs, Brock Niagara Penguins has had to cancel programming during the COVID-19 pandemic.
It’s trying to keep athletes engaged with “Motivational Mondays” on Facebook and Twitter and lent racing wheelchairs to three athletes so they can train in their garages.
But the isolation has still been tough, she said.
“For a lot of our athletes, Penguins are their family. Right now they don’t have us. I hope this gets all figured out and we become strong again in September.”