(The Kansas City Star published the following article by Robert A. Cronkleton.)
KANSAS CITY — It’s a $1 million sneaker heist.
In retail numbers, anyway.
And these are the latest Nike Air Jordans — shoes that won’t hit the retail shelves until the end of the month, coinciding with the NCAA basketball tournaments.
Two weeks ago, thieves stole a trailer full of shoes on its way to Midwest retailers.
Even before the missing trailer was found in Kansas City’s West Bottoms on Monday evening, Kansas City, Kan., police were seeing individuals on the street sporting the $180-a-pair shoes. The shoes are white with royal blue soles and no laces.
No one had been arrested as of early Tuesday afternoon.
The trailer, carrying 5,500 pairs of shoes, was headed for a truck depot in the East Bottoms.
Police received a tip about 7 p.m. Monday that the trailer was at Woodswether Road and Santa Fe Street in the West Bottoms. Police found only the trailer, not the truck.
When police got to the trailer, only 1,600 pairs remained. The wholesale value of the load was $475,000, police said.
“About all we know is that they were stolen,” said David Tattershall, president of Shaw Container Service Inc., 1620 N. Jackson Ave. in Kansas City’s East Bottoms. “We are not sure exactly when that happened. We are still reviewing our records.”
Thieves might have stolen the shoes as early as Feb. 26, Tattershall said. Shaw Container was holding the shoes prior to shipping them to a Foot Locker distribution center in Junction City, Kan.
He said that the trailer was discovered missing on March 7, after Kansas City, Kan., police stopped a car and discovered three cases of shoes — about 36 pairs.
Police contacted Nike Inc., which directed them to Shaw Container.
Steve Forsberg, a spokesman for Burlington Northern Santa Fe Railroad, said a train carried the trailer from California to Kansas City, Kan., arriving at the railroad’s Argentine yard on Feb. 17.
Forsberg said the trailer stayed at the yard until Feb. 25, when a Shaw Container truck picked it up.
Forsberg said the railroad’s intermodal hub center has strict, controlled access that requires proper paperwork.
“Everything was intact when it (the trailer) left here,” Forsberg said. “There was no theft from our facility. What happened after it left here, we don’t know.”
For now, police and officials with Shaw Container aren’t sure, either. Or they’re not saying. But the fact that Kansas City, Kan., police are investigating indicates that authorities think the theft took place in that city.
Tattershall said a similar theft took place in 1998, when thieves made off with a trailer load of shoes headed to the same Foot Locker distribution center. Thieves broke into other trailers — owned by Shaw and other distributors — that year and stole items. The perpetrators were later caught.
According to police-radio transmissions Monday evening, police had questioned as many as 10 persons who were seen wearing the distinctive shoes.
Kansas City, Kan., Police Capt. Michael Kobe said police had received reports of people wearing the shoes at area schools Tuesday.
Douglas Bolden, principal at Schlagle High School in Kansas City, Kan., said a teacher noticed that one student was wearing a pair of the shoes. When the teacher notified security, two other students said they, too, had bought shoes from someone outside the school.