Fans to the rescue as thieves strike Minneapolis City soccer club

They stole everything.

The Minneapolis City soccer club crew stared in shock at an empty space in the Augsburg University parking lot. The space where the team's equipment trailer was supposed to be.

It was Sunday. Sunday was game day. But everything they needed to set up a game had been on that trailer. Tables and tents for ticket-taking. Racks for merchandise. Water coolers for the players.

"I can only hope the thieves were disappointed in their haul," said Dan Hoedeman, chairman of the nonprofit Minneapolis City soccer club. "It's some racks for our merchandise booth. What are they going to do with that? Worst heist ever."

But replacing everything will cost an estimated $15,000. A cruel blow for an amateur club that plays for the love of the game and not much else.

As storm clouds gathered over Augsburg's stadium and lightning briefly delayed the Minneapolis City Crows' matchup against Vlora FC, organizers scrambled. They set up their phones to swipe credit cards for ticket sales. They ran to the store for bottled water.

By Monday, fans were scrambling too. On social media, artists offered stickers in exchange for a donation to the team. Fans raffled merchandise.

Thousands of dollars poured into a GoFundMe to replace the trailer and its contents. The team is hoping some of those fans might have an extra table, or tent, or water cooler. They might need them Wednesday evening, when the team is set to play the Thunder Bay Chill.

"We might need to do almost a potluck for this one — 'Can we borrow your table for a couple of hours?' " Hoedeman said. "Keep an eye on us on social media. We're going to see if we can't bring the community together to help."

After all, he said, bringing the community together was how the club got its start in the first place. People donated. People bought tickets and merchandise. People showed up for this volunteer-run, fourth-tier soccer league, playing its heart out in the space between college and the pros.

"Most people aren't going to get anything out of this except the good feeling of being part of something," Hoedeman said. "Here, the fans make a real impact. The players really know them. They keep us going."

By Tuesday night, fans and the GoFundMe account had raised more than the $15,000 the team needed to to replace the trailer and everything in it.

Very little on that trailer would have been of much value to a thief. But those items meant a lot to the volunteers who run the club and scrimped and saved and had memories tied up in every object. It wasn't just a rack. It was the rack that held the first piece of Crows merchandise the team ever sold.

"There's a weird emotional component to it," Hoedeman said, echoing conversations he had with heartsick staff. "We bought this stuff over seven years. We argued about what to buy, we went to the bargain bin and sweated everything. That's all gone."

Augsburg declined to comment on the theft, but Hoedeman said the lot has surveillance cameras and the footage is being reviewed.

So as you travel through the Twin Cities, keep an eye out for that stolen trailer — a tidy white cube with an oval Continental Cargo sticker on the back. And if you're looking for something to do on a Wednesday, the Crows play at 7 p.m. at Augsburg's Edor Nelson Field.