KAPAA — A light mist shrouded the Kapaa High School air riflery teams Thursday morning ahead of the predicted rains. Normally, the marksmen would be sheltered from the elements by tents which extend the coverage of the covered structure in
KAPAA — A light mist shrouded the Kapaa High School air riflery teams Thursday morning ahead of the predicted rains.
Normally, the marksmen would be sheltered from the elements by tents which extend the coverage of the covered structure in place. But there were no tents Thursday.
“Someone stole the big tents,” said Jim Rosa, whose son Michael Rosa is part of the Kauai Interscholastic Federation champion teams. “There were four big tents — one belonging to coach Ian Versammy, another owned by Greg Gonsalves, the school’s athletic director who loaned the tent so the team could extend the range, and two were mine from the days when Tony Kunimura was the mayor from the 1980s.”
Versammy said the tents have an estimated value of about $1,800. The theft was reported to Gonsalves and Daniel Hamada, school principal. He said once school resumes Monday, a police report will be filed.
“This was not just a one-man operation,” Versammy said. “Because of the size of the tents, there must’ve been several people involved. It takes several students just to relocate the tents in place.”
Versammy said the tents were erected for Friday’s re-scheduled match against Kauai High School, but were not needed because the match was moved indoors to the Bernice Hundley Gym.
“The tents were still there Saturday when I checked,” Versammy said. “But because it was raining, we left them out to dry. Monday morning, we did indoor work, but Paul Souza, the head grounds person, saw them. He reported that on Tuesday, there were only a few stakes left. When we went down, ‘Hey, did anyone pick up the tents?’ They were gone.”
Versammy said he checked around the area for tracks or signs of where the tents could have gone.
Rosa suspects the thieves cut the chain to the St. Catherine Cemetery which sits below the range, and took out the tents that way.
“Saturday, I saw that someone had cut the chain with bolt cutters,” said Rosa, who is responsible for opening and locking the cemetery gates. “I didn’t think anything of it and just went out and got new chains. By going through the cemetery, they can just drive their truck in place and haul the tents about a hundred yards.”
Rosa said he wants the people responsible to return the items.
“If people needed to use the tents, all they had to do was ask,” Versammy said. “We would have loaned it to them. We used the tents to benefit the kids, and someone took that away from them. Extending and improving the range was just a more efficient way so the students would be more productive rather than sitting around waiting.”
Rosa said his two tents have a long history of being used to help nonprofits since he got them from the late Kunimura.
“Those tents have helped a lot of people,” Rosa said. “Where are they now?”
