Tumbling troupe not taken to the mat by theft

Lynn Doan

Tuesday, July 6, 2004 | 8:56 a.m.

The West Bend Dance and Tumbling Troupe of Wisconsin will always remember Las Vegas as the city where its trailer was stolen.

The dance troupe drove from West Bend, Wis., to Las Vegas last month with a trailer full of brand-new tumbling mats for "Gymfest," an annual three-day event organized by the governing board of USA Gymnastics.

On the last day of the stay, the dancers walked out to the parking lot of AmeriSuites, just west of the University of Nevada, Las Vegas, piled into their rented vans and were about to drive to the Gymfest awards ceremony to see how well they had done.

Then one of the team members turned around and noticed something missing.

"We looked in the back of us and realized that our trailer was gone," said Jackie Maynard, troupe coach and director of West Bend's recreation department.

Maynard estimated that the 16 "brand, spanking new" mats in the trailer were worth almost $2,200, and the trailer was worth $2,500.

For most of the dancers, who are 7 to 24 years old, it was the first time in the city of "beautiful, bright lights," and they loved it -- until their last morning in Las Vegas, Maynard said.

"Now, they're always going to remember Las Vegas as the place where their trailer got stolen," Maynard said.

The theft even put a damper on the troupe's first-place finish later that day.

"It made for a very bittersweet Sunday because the kids did superlative, winning a star award, but it was in the back of their minds," Maynard said.

The loss of the equipment almost cost the troupe a performance at Disneyland, which was scheduled the day after the competition. The theme park did not have mats, so Maynard had to search for equipment.

Once she found a gymnastics club nice enough to lend the mats, Maynard drove two hours to Temecula, Calif., in a rented U-Haul to pick them up.

Metro Police Lt. Larry Espinosa said stolen trailer reports are rare in Las Vegas, but they usually occur when owners do not take enough precautions.

For example, as was the case with the troupe's trailer, Espinosa said trailers that are not registered or not distinguished with a marked identification number are primary targets for theft. When a trailer does not bear marked identification, Espinosa said, it is harder for police to conduct a search and for victims to prove that a recovered trailer is theirs.

Wisconsin, unlike Nevada, does not require trailers to be registered. In this case, Espinosa said, it would have been smart for owners to mark a unique number on their trailer or to use a trailer from a state that requires registration.

"There should be some sort of identification, so that (owners) will be able to tell police, 'I know that's my car (or trailer),"' Espinosa said.

Maynard said the troupe's trailer was equipped with a security lock that can immobilize it. However, she said the police could not find the lock in the parking lot.

Espinosa said a security lock would have been relatively easy to get around for a professional trailer thief.

"There are guys that are specifically out there to do this," Espinosa said. "A person steals trailers in this day and age because they're looking to make some money by selling whatever's in it."

Maynard said she can see it now: a dark, mysterious fellow opening his coat to reveal a tumbling mat and whispering, "Hey, buddy, want to buy a mat?"

Making a joke of it all is just how the dancers and gymnasts are coping with their loss, Maynard said.

"With things like this, you can choose to make light of them and find the humor in it or you can just throw your hands up in the air," she said. "We choose to find the humor in it. "I'm just hoping that the thief threw the mats in a Dumpster somewhere and a homeless person found them to live on," she said.