Sticky Fingers

Stealing is common among my players. Every year, it seems like I have a player (or players) with sticky fingers; basically, anything they touch happens to disappear. Five years into this, I still don't know how to deal with those situations because a false accusation can lead to many problems. Four years ago, a pair of brand new sneakers were taken from the team room. A year later, money was taken from a player during practice. The following year, an IPOD disappeared. Each time I had an inkling of who the culprit was, but couldn't act on my instincts. I learned a lesson a few years ago about implicating without strong evidence.

There was a guy on the team who was uncharacteristically fidgety before games. During pregame meetings, he'd rock back and forth as though somebody overcharged his batteries. All of the coaches noticed it. After we talked about it as a staff, I decided to ask the young man if he was doping up before games. That was a bad move. It would be an understatement to say that he was offended. He strongly denied my accusation and I had a hard time putting out that fire. Since then, with any sensitive issue, I haven't done any outward finger pointing.

Last year, a couple of guys "lost" IPODs. I never got a handle on who it could have been. The first guy to lose his IPOD told me privately that he suspected Lanky of being the thief. I quickly put that accusation to rest. Lanky didn't seem like the type to steal from anybody. My spidey senses never went off around him. The issues I typically encountered with Lanky were customary. I never felt like I'd pick up the paper and read about something crazy involving him.

Today, I received a phone call from Lanky's new basketball coach. Lanky just moved to college three weeks ago. I consider him to be one of our true success stories, having raised his GPA to a 2.47 from a 1.8 in a year. Unfortunately, his coach wasn't calling with good news.

Me: Coach, how's it going?
Coach: Not good.
Me: Oh. What's going on? What he do?
Coach: Well, last night after study hall he came to me and said that the cops went to his room.
Me: For what?
Coach: They questioned him about a laptop that was in his possession.
Me: He stole it?
Coach: Well, he says he didn't. I'm calling to get your take on this.
Me: In all honesty, I value my professional relationship with you. I'd never send you a thief. We never had any issues around stealing with him. He's not the type, in my opinion.
Coach: Okay. Yeh. It just seems weird to me. He told me that some dude gave him the laptop.
Me: Hold up. Somebody just gave him a laptop out of the goodness of their heart? That doesn't make sense.
Coach: That's what he told me. I told him if he tells the truth, he won't be dismissed from school. Once the cops get involved, I can't do anything to help him.

Given this situation, I'm now wondering if Lanky was actually the IPOD thief...