‘You took from the kids.’Thousands of dollars in equipment stolen from boxing gym on Staten Island

STATEN ISLAND, N.Y. — A gym in Tottenville lost thousands of dollars in equipment during a burglary last week.

“What a shame,” said Dominic Breen, owner of Shaolin Boxing Club, about the heist he discovered on Wednesday morning at his gym at 101 Ellis St.

Breen, who also teaches a program at Dreyfus Intermediate School (I.S. 49) in Stapleton, added that “we were really wiped clean” by the burglars, who took a large amount of items such as weights, bench presses, mats and TVs.

An envelope containing over $2,000 to fund a holiday party for the children also was pilfered, Breen said.

“I truly do this just for the kids,” Breen said of the club. “All of my Instagram posts say, ‘You didn’t take anything from me, you took from the kids.’”

“On top of that, we throw a nice party for these kids every year and get them gifts,” Breen added. “This definitely made that a lot harder taking that envelope with our funds.”

Based on footage from area surveillance cameras, Breen believes the burglary occurred around 5:30 a.m. on Wednesday. He speculated that the suspects used a drill to disable a key lock on the front door and then entered the building.

Breen described viewing on surveillance-camera footage what appeared to be two men going in and out of the building as they stole equipment and put those items in a pick-up truck.

“I don’t know how they drove with this stuff it was stacked so high,” Breen said.

NYPD INVESTIGATION

Police are investigating a report that an unknown individual entered the gym and removed various items sometime after 8 p.m. on Dec. 12 and before the break-in was reported around 7:20 p.m. on Dec. 13, according to a spokesman for the NYPD.

A description for the individual is not available from police.

No arrests have been made and the investigation continues, the police spokesman said.

A GoFundMe campaign was established last week and has raised over $3,000 for the gym.