3 suspects steal $4,500 worth of pickleball paddles from Tennis Topia
MONTGOMERY COUNTY, Md. - A store owner in Rockville said suspected thieves stole more than $4,000 worth of pickleball paddles, as police investigate whether the burglary is connected to other similar crimes.
Marco Impeduglia is the owner of Tennis Topia, which has been in Rockville for about seven years.
Impeduglia took over about a year ago. He said on April 27, between 25 and 30 paddles were stolen during store hours. Each paddle can cost around $200, he said.
He shared surveillance video with FOX 5, showing the two women and a man who walked in.
"Those two ladies, just every few seconds would peel five or six pickleball paddles, put them in their bags, underneath their garments. They would do that for 7 or 8 minutes. The gentlemen left, the two ladies left the store," he said. "We didn’t notice it until literally the next morning when we opened up the shop. I said, ‘I know yesterday was a busy day, I don’t think we sold that many paddles.’"
The surveillance video was turned over to Rockville police. Lt. Jason West with the Rockville Police Dept. said the detectives are in the process of reviewing the video, though an identification of the suspects has not been made yet from the video.
Though this is the first pickleball equipment-related theft in Rockville, Lt. West said detectives are investigating whether the suspects are connected to similar thefts in the region.
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Days before the theft case in Rockville, Alpine Ski Shop posted on Facebook a similar situation at their Fairfax, Virginia store. According to the post, two paddles were stolen on April 23. Fairfax City police Sgt. James Lewis told FOX 5 that Alpine Ski Shop has not filed a report with their department as of Friday.
Detectives have not definitively connected the cases.
Impeduglia said it was disappointing to see the thefts when he was reviewing the surveillance footage. Once he realized the dozens of paddles had been stolen from the store, he said they immediately took action.
"We’re gearing up toward our high season. We’re feeling it now. The volume is picking up, the sales are picking up, pickleball, outdoor tennis, and outdoor pickleball. So, it really was a…'Okay, let’s do our research, get this to the police, and literally order more pickleball paddles,'" he said. "That was our mindset, make sure we still service our customers. A lot of them feel bad for us. They’ve been texting us, a complete support group from the tennis and pickleball community. We’re still running a business, so we got to make sure we’re giving the customers what they want."
More associates have been added to the floor, he said. They have also added more security measures such as magnets for some products, so they cannot be stolen out of the store as easily.
"Our entire team is aware of the situation. We added some magnets that prevent customers from grabbing pickleball paddles off the wall. So, we added them on all of our pegs on our pickleball wall," he said.
So far, no arrests have been made.