U-Haul filled with equipment stolen from Edmonton adaptative sledge hockey team

An Edmonton sledge hockey team coming off a big win at a tournament in California, but not all their belongings made the trip home with them.

The Edmonton Adaptive Sports Association (EASA) sledge hockey team was celebrating their hard-fought victory, but the celebration was cut short when they realized the U-Haul with all of their belongings was missing.

“Initially we thought it was a joke or something, we thought someone was pulling our leg,” said EASA Storm player Kendra Erhardt. “But yeah no, the whole truck and all of our gear was gone.”

Customized sleds, jerseys and other personal belongings were nowhere to be seen.

The gear is customized specifically for each individual, made to support their specific physical characteristics.

Tracker leads police to Anaheim home

One player stored an AirTag in their luggage, leading police and the team to a residence in Anaheim where many items were found in the back of a pickup truck.

But a majority of belongings were still gone, including customized oilers jerseys with each player’s name stitched on, along with a unique decal honouring their former teammate Zach Savage, who died earlier this year.

“Losing those jerseys is pretty devastating for the individuals and the team members. They’re quite upset,” said EASA president Roger Lockwood.

“It really is something that brings us all together,” said Erhardt. “It’s a commonality that we all have. Once you’re on the ice and in your sled, everyone’s on the same playing level, which is cool. So it’s too bad this was taken away from us.”

Practices are on hold until the equipment is recovered, but the items are expensive and take a lot of time to manufacture and replace, casting doubt over the team’s availability at a tournament scheduled for January.

Police are working to recover the remaining missing items.