Police recover hockey gear trailer stolen from electric wheelchair team

Minnesota PowerHockey League has its roots as the first organized electric wheelchair hockey league in the United States, in which players compete in a gymnasium and knock around whiffle ball instead of a puck.

(And you thought stopping a puck on-edge was tough …)

Last week, someone robbed the League of its hockey equipment. This wasn't some smash and grab job in an community center gear closet; someone actually stole the entire trailer of equipment parked outside of Carburetion & Turbo Systems in Shakopee, where it was parked for the winter.

As in the $3,000 trailer itself, and all the stuff inside of it.

The hockey gear — padded boards, hockey sticks, hockey nets, jerseys, speaker equipment, a scoreboard, according to the Star Tribune — was dumped near a local high school, where passing cars damaged much of it.

This terrible story does have some semblance of a happy ending.

Police recovered the trailer on late Tuesday afternoon and have a suspect in connection with the theft. From the Star Tribune:

"It had been parked outside, and the plates were pulled, but the registration sticker was still on the tongue of the trailer," said Maple Grove police Capt. Tracy Stille.

Also still in place was the large blue hockey league logo that adorns both sides of the white trailer, Stille added. The recovered trailer held some hockey equipment and a snowblower, suggesting to Stille that there had been another theft victim.

Stille described the suspect as a convicted felon currently on probation and wanted in "potentially dozens" of thefts, most involving construction equipment left unattended at work sites. He has yet to be charged in the trailer theft as police continue compiling the case against him.

We're not sure what the insurance situation is for the League or even if they're looking for donations, but if our readers in Minnesota want to look into it the League's contact info is here.