The home burglary is a major setback for the girls soccer team. Thieves made off with money that was going to be used for team uniforms and equipment for next year's season. The girls say they're devastated and will now have to start from scratch.
"All these drawers were open, all those drawers were open," said Khristall Pimentel. Clothes were still scattered in Pimentel's room after burglars ransacked her family's Tulare home. Pimentel believes she scared off the intruders when she came home after soccer practice. "We were making a lot of noise coming into the house and I think maybe they saw the lights when we turned in or heard the gravel," said Pimentel.
The crooks ran out the back door, the same way they got inside. They made off with Khristall's laptop, flute and other belongings totaling more than $30,000. "That is all material things that can be replaced eventually," said Kathie Pimentel, Khristall's mother. "What really concerns us is that we had just done a fundraiser for Mission Oak Booster for the soccer team," she said.
Thieves took close to $1,000 the family was raising for the Mission Oak High School Girls Soccer Booster Club. "That's probably what hurts the most is our soccer money because we were raising it for our new uniforms, our equipment and trying to go out and better our season," said Pimentel.
Pimentel is a goalkeeper for the Junior Varsity team and says her teammates were devastated to hear about the loss. Their coach says the incident is a setback for the girls. "They don't realize that the people who are doing that, they're not stealing from adults, they're stealing from kids," said John Pimentel, the girls soccer coach.
Despite the loss, the team says this incident will only bring them closer together. "We raised this much, I'm sure we can do it again. But it's just going to be hard and having to do it all over again starting at zero, it will take a while but we'll get it back," said Pimentel.
The Tulare County Sheriff's Office is investigating the burglary.
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