Thieves steal from 'Burg' baseball league in St. Petersburg

ST. PETERSBURG, Fla. (WFLA) – Organizers of the Burg youth baseball league in St. Petersburg are crying foul ball after thieves broke into their concession stand.

Some time late Saturday or early Sunday, thieves carted off all kinds of goodies, but even worse, they trashed the place and even tried to set it on fire.

The thieves used a large limb to pry the metal roll-down door open.

They made off with eight cases of Gatorade, logo “Burg” shirts, baseballs and gloves.

“All this stuff over here on these shelves were just filled with things that they either threw down that they didn’t want or just rifled through” said League President Charles Castle.

The Burg burglars set a Rays cap on fire. The heat damaged a large cooler.

The floor is littered with debris. They also scribbled vulgar messages on a refrigerator and an electrical box.

“When they threw everything down, they threw bleach and Gatorade on everything,” said Castle.

The Burg baseball league stresses the importance of team work, discipline and character building.

“But it was obvious that maybe some young kids in the community that should be a part of our program, so that they would have had something to do on Saturday,” said League Vice-President Cliff Williams.

For the heartless thieves who could do this to kids, this message from the league organizers: “You outta be ashamed of yourselves. Doing something like this, you ought to be ashamed of yourselves,” said Castle.

Frustrated? Disgusted? Yes.

“This is not gonna stop us from, you know, actually training kids. I’ve been saying today, that as long as I have a bucket of baseballs, we’re gonna train. We’re gonna have practice,” said Cliff Williams.

St. Petersburg police have very little to go on. Losses total about $2800.

Security cameras will be going up soon.