BUFFALO, N.Y. — Imagine walking into a place you call home only to find it left in pieces. That's what a youth football team in Buffalo is dealing with this week.

What You Need To Know

  • The Beast Elite Ducks youth football team started practicing again this week

  • The team found its storage hut vandalized and items stolen inside 

  • Buffalo Police are investigating

"Just destroyed. Everything in there is destroyed," said Douglas Hunt, the president of the Beast Elite Ducks.

If you take a look inside the Beast Elite Ducks storage hut at Emerson Park in Buffalo, you'll find equipment scattered, torn-up walls and missing items.

"Flat-screen TV, a 70-inch screen TV was stolen," said Hunt. "A generator was stolen, a power washer was stolen, all of the copper pipes inside of the building were stolen."

Hunt says they received a park permit to start practicing this week. It's the first time they've been back on the field during the pandemic. Throughout the past year, COVID-19 restrictions have prevented the team from having access to the hut, and once they were cleared to return, they found damaged uniforms and equipment as well as valuables gone.

"According to the police, it happened in April, but we were never notified that it happened from nobody, so we literally unlocked the door and walked into a mess," Hunt said.

Erie County Legislator Howard Johnson and Fillmore District Common Councilmember Mitch Nowakowski came out Thursday afternoon to view the damage for themselves and vowed their support for the team.

"I will be partnering up with Legislator Johnson and others to make sure that we are able to find funding to help mitigate some of these costs that were lost to the team," said Councilmember Nowakowski.

"We need to galvanize around these kids. Whatever we can do assist them, community and all, this is what community is about," said Legislator Johnson. "When there's an ounce of troubles in the water, we need to come together and see that everybody is OK."

The team says the city filed a police report, and with an investigation underway, they're determined to get through this and not be a sob story.

"This is voluntary," Hunt said. "We don't get paid a dollar, we do everything we can for our kids and they keep hurting our kids at the end of the day and that's what it's about. The world needs to know just because you come in here and steal all of our stuff, we're not going to stop, we're going to keep going."

A city spokesperson says the incident happened in late April. He says the Buffalo Police Department is investigating the incident and the Parks Department has already begun the repairs.

Anyone who wishes to reach out to the team can do so by emailing Beasteliteducks8@gmail.com.