SAN DIEGO (KGTV) – A coach of a youth soccer club called South Bay FC in Logan Heights partly gets his wish granted.
Tom Bui was pleading for his car to be found, not for the vehicle but for the team's equipment inside it.
Bui told ABC 10News that on Saturday night, he got a call from police saying his car had been found.
“He asked for my last three digits of the license plate. I gave him the last three digits, and he said, Yeah, we've recovered your car in Alpine. Can you get to Alpine, you know, ASAP?” Bui said.
It’d be easy to lose faith in getting your car back after it’s been stolen.
“A moment of like, is this real? Like, can you, you guys found my car? My friend was like, "Oh, it's gone, you know, you, you're not going to get it back or whatnot,” Bui said.
Bui said on Saturday he raced up to get his recently recovered car.
“I got to the place, and inside the car was a whole bunch of junk, packages, other people's mail. None of it is my kids' soccer stuff,” Bui said.
Bui told ABC 10News last Friday that items like benches, canopies, soccer gear (including cleats and jerseys for some of his players), and two cameras for recording practices were all in the car.
“So, roughly 1200 bucks maybe, you know, 1500 bucks,” Bui told ABC 10News on Friday.
He had said he wanted the equipment back more than the car.
“And to not get it back, it's just like it's like a sucker punch, right? It's like, yeah, you, you're there, but you're not completely, um, whole again,” Bui said.
Bui’s since gotten the car cleaned and detailed before he can pick up his players to bring to practice. He may not feel exactly whole getting the car back without the equipment.
But the support from the community is helping get back what Bui and the team lost.
“I had coaches all the way in Escondido reach out and say, Hey, I have some stuff you guys can, can come get it. I have friends that call and say, Hey, how can we replace those things,” Bui said. “I’m just overjoyed and I'm so thankful for this community that come together and support the kids, and I'm from the bottom of my heart, thank you.”
