By Lily Leung
The Arizona Republic
SURPRISE, Ariz. — Daniel Hughes says he is the prime example of someone who did everything right but still came up the victim of a crime.
Thieves broke into the Surprise police chief’s gym locker at Mountainside Fitness Club in Surprise last Friday night, stealing his wallet, uniform, badge and keys to his unmarked police vehicle between 6 and 7 p.m., Hughes said.
The assailants then went to the parking lot and stole his Chevrolet Tahoe, in which he had left his Glock .40-caliber handgun. The theft happened sometime during Hughes’ routine 90-minute workout at the fitness center.
Hughes said the vehicle was eventually found about three blocks from the gym at the Brookside Center, a shopping center near Bell and Reems roads.
That’s when police discovered that all the vehicle’s contents had been stolen. The car was otherwise relatively untouched.
“The car itself was in pretty good shape,” Hughes said. “They went through the car and took anything of value.”
Hughes said he left police headquarters about a 5:45 p.m. and arrived to the gym about 6 p.m. He said he locked his car and entered the fitness center in his uniform, with his gym bag in hand.
He changed into his workout gear, put his things into a locker and locked it.
After running on the treadmill, he returned to the locker room and found that the lock and everything in the locker was gone.
Hughes said he was about to call 911 when he realized that a gentleman who had a locker above his also had been victimized by thieves.
“So I just simply said, ‘While you’re talking to them, (tell them) there’s a second victim,” said Hughes, a regular at the gym.
Hughes said he is unsure if he was targeted because he walked into the facility in his uniform, or whether it was a random crime. But he conceded that he usually walks into the gym in civilian clothes and doesn’t use the lockers.
“I would like to think that they didn’t see me walking in in my uniform,” he said. “I don’t know. Obviously, I’m not the only one . . . I’m not sure, but my concern is certainly that when they broke into the locker, you would think they might want to leave it alone when they saw the uniform in there.”
Police are exploring several leads in the case and are trying to determine if it is part of a crime trend involving other gyms in Surprise.
Copyright 2008 The Arizona Republic