Saratoga Football Players' Equipment Vandalized at Los Gatos High

Police working the , have been contacted by a parent who alleges her son's athletic gear was vandalized and his iPhone stolen.

The student, a Saratoga High School junior varsity football player, claims someone smeared some sort of lotion on his gear bag the night of the game and also vandalized the bags of other teammates, said spokesman Sgt. Kerry Harris.

The incident, which apparently took place in the Los Gatos High School guest locker room, occurred between 5 and 9 p.m., but was reported to the cops later that evening, Harris said, adding that the timeframe was when the junior varsity teams were playing against each other at.

"They indicated to police that some sort of lotion was found on equipment bags of various junior varsity football players," Harris said. "[The student] indicated that he had placed his equipment bag in an unlocked locker in the Saratoga High School's visitor locker room at Los Gatos High School."

The investigation that evening revealed that a Los Gatos High School assistant principal unlocked the locker room to allow the Saratoga High School junior varsity team entry to prepare for the game and that when they left the premises to go out into the field and warm up to play the locker room was locked.

At some time subsequent to that, the Saratoga High School football varsity team arrived and the assistant principal once again unlocked the room to allow them entry, Harris explained.

"It's not clear when the vandalism and the theft took place," Harris said. "Whether it was during the period when the varsity team was in the locker room or whether it was at some point in time when someone else could have entered the locker room and taken the phone.

"It's believed that there's little or no time that the room was left unlocked or unattended," Harris noted. "We have not received any other reports of thefts from bags of students."

Harris, without placing blame on anyone, didn't rule out the possibility that the vandalism could have been a prank played on the younger players by the older Saratoga football athletes.

Superintendent Bob Mistele said a police report about the incident has been filed and officials are cooperating with police to find those responsible.

Mistele also said the district will follow up on any new information that will help identify those responsible. "Whenever an incident like this occurs, we re-examine our security procedures—this time in the locker rooms. We take this kind of behavior very seriously but, at this time, without additional information, we cannot comment about possible consequences,” he said.

The investigation is continuing. Anyone with information about the case is asked to contact the Los Gatos Monte Sereno Police Department at 408-354-8600.