GARY | Thieves stole personal laptops, cellphones and cash from Wirt/Emerson Academy for Visual and Performing Arts cheerleaders during a Friday pep rally, team members said.
Angela Walker said Friday her daughter, Daja Shufford, a junior, lost a laptop worth several hundred dollars that she had left in a classroom at Lew Wallace Science Technology Engineering Mathematics Academy.
Jessica Sibley, a senior and team captain, said she lost two cellphones and $75 in the same theft.
They called Gary police, who promised to investigate the crime, they said. A police spokesman couldn't be reached Friday for comment.
They said they didn't have time to take their electronic equipment home Friday because the pep rally was scheduled to take place shortly after classes ended. They traveled straight to Lew Wallace, where a school employee directed them to leave their belongings in a music room and assured them the door would be locked.
The pep rally took place in the school gymnasium and lasted a little more than an hour.
"When we came back, Daja started saying, 'Where is my laptop?' Then we all started looking for our things, and it was all gone," Sibley said.
Walker said they later learned the lock on the classroom's door wasn't functioning.
Please Wait…