Portland police are reviewing surveillance video taken inside the Cross Insurance Arena as they try to determine who got into a visitors locker room and stole $1,000 from the Medomak Valley High School boys’ basketball team as they practiced last week.

The team had been in Portland to practice Thursday before returning to the Waldoboro area before Friday’s state championship game against Cape Elizabeth. Medomak Valley lost that game at the buzzer, 44-42.

Police initially said they had a suspect they were looking to arrest. On Monday, they said the arena staff had identified someone it felt was suspicious but police said they still needed to conduct interviews and do a more thorough review of the security tapes before they could charge anyone. They said there are video cameras monitoring entrances but not one that would have captured the theft itself, which happened inside the locker room, where there are no cameras.

Police said a man got into the boys’ dressing room about 2:30 p.m. while the team was practicing, rummaged through multiple backpacks and wallets and took cash out of several of them.

Following renovations to what had been called the Cumberland County Civic Center, the visiting locker rooms are now accessed by a hallway that also is used by some in the audience to reach their seats, police said.

Before the state title game, a donor provided money to cover what was taken from the boys. The donor, who wished to remain anonymous, is a woman who lives in Greater Portland who “wanted to make things right” for the players, said Medomak Valley Coach Nick DePatsy.

 

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