Over $150,000 in hockey sticks stolen in Ocean’s Eleven-style heist
It was dark and quiet inside Monkey Sports, a sporting goods store in Quebec, around 10 p.m. last Saturday night. That silence was interrupted by the sound of a drill, slicing open a hole in the ceiling.
A rope fell from the hole, hitting the floor near where the store’s collection of hockey sticks resided. A man in a hooded sweatshirt followed down the rope. Rather than snag whatever he could from the store — a real smash and grab job, if you will — his theft was more calculated: He seemed to select the best sticks in the place.
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Soon, a collection of hockey twigs was amassed by the back door of the store, where his partner waited in a van to whisk his accomplice and the stolen merchandise away.
The total haul? According to Greg Goyer, the manager of Monkey Sports, it was estimated around $150,000.
“It’s amazing,” Goyer said. “I’m also sickened. To go undetected that way and not really have a care.”
The thief in the store chose a variety of expensive hockey stick brands including Bauer, CCM, Warrior and True. Each stick was worth around $300.
The sports equipment store, located on Brunswick Blvd. in Dollard-des-Ormeaux, a town west of Montreal, has been burglarized before. In August, Goyer had to beef up Monkey Sports’ security system after thieves broke the front window to gain entry. He said he never expected someone would break in through the ceiling.
“He found the right location on top of the roof,” Goyer said. “When you think about it, on top of the roof to find the key location to drop in the store where you’re not hitting anything – any beams, or any pipes or any electrical lines. To land directly in the stick section took some planning.”
No word if Monkey Sports is planning on installing those heat/motion/noise sensors the CIA had to protect it’s NOC List from a rappelling Tom Cruise in “Mission: Impossible.”
As usual, police and the store are asking hockey players in the area to raise a flag if they’re offered premium hockey gear at a suspiciously low price. The fact is that they need all the evidence they can find if they intend to make these charges…
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But we expect these brazen thieves have moved on to bigger scores. Did you know the Mirage, the Bellagio and the MGM Grand share the same vault in Las Vegas? We hear there’s quite a bit of money there on a fight night. Now, if only someone had the equipment to get down those elevators …
Greg Wyshynski is a writer for Yahoo Sports. Contact him at puckdaddyblog@yahoo.com or find him on Twitter. His book, TAKE YOUR EYE OFF THE PUCK, is available on Amazon and wherever books are sold.
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