Members of Pomona High School's marching band narrowly avoided a disastrous impediment to their season when their band trailer, full of equipment, was stolen on Oct. 17, just two days before team was set to compete in the 4A Metro Regional. The trailer was recovered by authorities on Oct. 18 with no damage reported.

On the morning of Oct. 17, drivers operating a 15-passenger van, which was later confirmed to have been stolen, drove to the west side of the Pomona parking lot, where the school's two band trailers were parked, according to Pomona School Resource Officer Richard Brown.

Surveillance camera footage shows the van backing up to the smaller trailer and attempting to break the trailer's lock to hook it up to the van's hitch, but the suspects were unable to steal that trailer.

After failing to lift the first trailer, the suspects moved on to the larger trailer, which they hooked up to the van and drove off with within 10 minutes.

Later that day, Commerce City Police Officers recovered the trailer after the van pulling it had crashed into a fence.

“The van wasn't equipped to carry such a large trailer,” Brown said. “The back axle broke off the van and it crashed into the fence.”

Commerce City Police impounded the trailer and reported that the suspects did not break the locks to the trailer. Authorities found no evidence of successful entry to the trailer.

“I contacted the school and let them know what was going on. The band director had a parent pick up the trailer from the impound lot and confirmed there was no damage to it, luckily, because the band had a big event the next day,” said Brown.

The band was able to compete as scheduled in the 4A Metro Regional on Oct. 19, where they placed seventh with 53.40 points. Heritage High School won the regional with 74.95 points.

Brown said that there were no suspects because the thieves were wearing dark clothing that shrouded their identities from the security camera.