Someone delivered a haymaker to the Bulldog Boxing Club Saturday
night. It might as well been a punch below the belt.
Sunday morning, BBC founder Zeke Lopez was contacted by a
Leatherback Industries employee that the front door to the Bulldog
BC office, which is owned by the city and sits adjacent to
Leatherback, had been kicked in. The thieves took a computer,
sparring equipment, eight pairs of gloves, competition gear and
gloves to hit the bags with. Twelve sets of uniforms, bearing the
Bulldog Boxing Club name, were also missing. The uniforms, alone,
ran Lopez about $100 each.
Someone delivered a haymaker to the Bulldog Boxing Club Saturday night. It might as well been a punch below the belt.
Sunday morning, BBC founder Zeke Lopez was contacted by a Leatherback Industries employee that the front door to the Bulldog BC office, which is owned by the city and sits adjacent to Leatherback, had been kicked in. The thieves took a computer, sparring equipment, eight pairs of gloves, competition gear and gloves to hit the bags with. Twelve sets of uniforms, bearing the Bulldog Boxing Club name, were also missing. The uniforms, alone, ran Lopez about $100 each.
This is the second time in the past three years that Lopez has been targeted for theft. His former gym on Fourth Street was also robbed, with damages estimated at about $5,000. The total might be the same for this caper.
“I’m disgusted,” said Lopez. “The main question I ask is ‘Why?’ Why do these people take stuff they won’t even use. It’s senseless. I just feel bad for the kids.”
Lopez has about 20 young fighters in his stable, 15 of them were stunned with the news at practice Monday night. Seven were training hard for a boxing show in King City this weekend, but the trip is off for now.
“These kids were training for the past three weeks,” said Lopez. “Now I have to tell them they can’t go.”
One of them was 10 year-old Jorge Hernandez, who stood in the office with saddened eyes. Another was Armando Segrero.
“It was stupid,” said Segrero of the robbery. “Whoever did it is going to get caught.”
Lopez, out of the kindness of his heart, doesn’t charge most of his kids for his instructional services. He does an awful lot for the kids, training many of them, then setting up matches with other clubs. He gives kids hope. He gives them something to do besides running the streets. Lopez, who relies on donations to survive, needed this like Mike Tyson needed Don King.
“I felt like quitting,” said Lopez. “I have to ask myself why I even bother. It’s depressing. I come in here for the kids.”
Lopez credits people like Roger Marose to keep him going. When Lopez was ripped off three years ago, Marose, a San Juan Bautista resident, was so moved he gave Lopez $5,000 to buy new equipment.
“It is great what Zeke does for these kids,” said Jerry Martinez, a parent of a Bulldog boxer and another Lopez supporter. “Zeke gives these kids an activity to do. He keeps them away from drugs.”
No one was ever caught in Heist No. 1. Let’s hope the culprits in Heist No. 2 will be apprehended as soon as possible and that the equipment is recovered in tact.
This is a program worth keeping and not taking it away from the kids.
