$5K worth of items stolen from Las Vegas pickleball store, store manager says

Madison Kimbro
·2 min read
5

LAS VEGAS (KLAS) – Three people are accused of stealing $5,000 worth of items from a Las Vegas pickleball store, according to a police report filed by the business.

It happened on Friday at the Game-Set-Match store near Fort Apache Road and Tropicana Avenue.

“Pickleball is on the rise and it’s very popular,” store manager Conrad Corona said. “These paddles are not cheap by any means.”

Game-Set-Match store manager tells 8 News Now the store was robbed of $5,000 worth of items on Friday. (KLAS)
Game-Set-Match store manager tells 8 News Now the store was robbed of $5,000 worth of items on Friday. (KLAS)

According to Corona, surveillance video captured at the store showed three people entering the store on Friday.

“Three individuals came in the store. First, was a man, like a normal customer, he engaged in normal conversation about certain products like tennis rackets and what have you,” Corona shared.

Corona told 8 News Now he believes one of the individuals who entered the store asking questions about items may have been a decoy, while two other individuals walked in shortly after. One of the individuals was holding a baby at the time.

“In the blink of an eye you can see in the surveillance footage, they took approximately 15 paddles. Stuffing them into their clothes as they were wearing a lot of layers,” Corona said.

Corona’s co-worker, there at the time of the theft told 8 News Now the moment the three individuals left the store together, he knew something was up.

“I did feel like something was off and then my initial thought was, “‘ Where are they going?”‘

store employee Jack Hammond said.

Game-Set-Match store manager tells 8 News Now the store was robbed of $5,000 worth of items on Friday. (KLAS)
Game-Set-Match store manager tells 8 News Now the store was robbed of $5,000 worth of items on Friday. (KLAS)

He also shared that he believes the individuals knew what they were looking for, having pocketed some of the most expensive items in the store.

“They went directly for the highest marked pickleball paddles we have so it’s a huge hit,” he added.

Conrad told 8 News Now that he believes the incident was an organized ring operation as another pickleball store was hit over on Lake Mead Boulevard a couple of months back and Game-Set-Match has another location in Colorado where $30,000 worth of paddles were stolen in February.

“There’s an uptick and we have to be more vigilant. We’ve gone over some new policies and procedures since all of this took place,” Corona said.

Game-Set-Match filed a police report with the Las Vegas Metropolitan Police Department.

For the latest news, weather, sports, and streaming video, head to KLAS.