Thieves accused of smash and grab at local sports store during World Cup craze

PINEVILLE, N.C. — Masked thieves are accused of snatching some big ticket items during the World Cup craze.

Channel 9’s Eli Brand caught up with a store manager in Pineville about the hunt for who’s responsible.

Omar Gonzalez says a lot of what those people took include things people are looking for right now. Things like Argentina kits, Mexico kits, anything they could get their hands on that they could possibly resell.

Business at Best Buy Soccer on Pineville-Matthews Road was busy as usual on Friday afternoon, something that was a big help after what happened there last week.

The manager at the shop says surveillance video shows thieves taking whatever they can grab after breaking in, by breaking the glass on the front door.

Gonzalez says they took jerseys, balls, and goalkeeper gloves.

At different points in the video, you can see the alleged thieves taking multiple trips inside to take more.

The manager says the search is still on for the people responsible.

“Heartbreaking to see just with the amount of excitement that the World Cup brings to the community,” Gonzalez said.

He says the shop has been much busier since the FIFA World Cup kicked off last month. They were already struggling to keep up with the demand, and this made it much worse.

Gonzalez says the thieves targeted merchandise from popular teams like the U.S., Mexico, Argentina, and Colombia.

“That Saturday, the Colombia game for example, people were coming in the whole day looking for them and they just weren’t here to be able to provide it for the community,” Gonzalez said.

He says they are still trying to put a number to just how much they lost. Right now, the goal is to try and keep the World Cup fever going, and try and help people get what they want.

“There are just so many teams that are still in the tournament that sell and that’s what was taken,” said Gonzalez.

He does add that since they posted about that break-in on social media, they have seen a lot of people coming into the store to support them.

We’ve reached out to police about the alleged incident. We’re waiting to hear back.