Crime & Safety

Thieves Steal $30,000 Worth of Equipment, Trailer from Centre Stage

The trailer was found Tuesday but none of the equipment has been recovered.

Centre Stage, a non-profit theater company for children, is out of $30,000 worth of lighting and recording equipment thanks to thieves who nabbed its trailer on Monday.

Keely Milliken, the company's president and founder, said that trailer was stored behind locked gates at Ford Printing and Mailing in Irwindale, a local business that has agreed to let the group keep it there.

"The burglars cut the locks off the gate and stole everything," she said.  "They hooked it up to a trailer and hauled it away."

Authorities found the trailer abandoned on Peck Road in El Monte, but all of the equipment inside was gone, she said.

Milliken said that the nonprofit does have insurance, but it won't likely cover everything lost.

"It's going to effect out budget immensely," she said.

The theft also is going to effect planned performances of a musical that group plans to stage in a couple of months.

K-CAL 9 visited Centre Stage and aired a report on the theft Tuesday night. They interviewed students about the lost equipment.

“I was just beyond devastated,” Kelsi Barbata, 16, told the reporter. “Even though one little microphone may be really simple to most people, it’s not to us.”

Anyone with information regarding the theft is asked to call the Irwindale Police Department at 626-430-2244 or call Centre Stage at 626-357-8308.


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