It is of absolutely no surprise to me that a site search of The Philadelphia Inquirer’s website for “Polk County” turned up exactly nothing on these eight fine but misunderstood young men from the City of Brotherly Love being so unjustly arrested in Polk County, Florida. But, Alas! the newspaper’s lack of coverage was not able to keep the story from Philadelphians, as both 6ABC and NBC10 News did cover it:

8 Philadelphia youth football players face charges in Fla. theft case

By Corey Davis | Tuesday, December 9, 2025 | 9:05 AM EST

PHILADELPHIA (WPVI) — Eight teenagers from the Philadelphia area are facing felony charges in Florida after authorities say they stole more than $2,000 worth of merchandise from a sporting goods store.

Neither 6ABC nor the NBC 10 News story named or showed mugshots of the arrested teens, but the Polk County Sheriff’s Office did. Sheriff Judd is rather famous for naming and shaming criminals arrested in Polk County, something this website absolutely supports. You can click on the image to the right to enlarge it to fill screen. The video of Sheriff Grady Judd’s news conference on this is embedded below, below the fold.

The alleged theft happened Saturday morning in Polk County, where the teens had traveled to play in a youth football championship game.

The suspects, ages 14 and 15, are members of Philly’s United Thoroughbreds team.

Polk County Sheriff Grady Judd says the teens took an Uber to the Dick’s Sporting Goods in Davenport.

“I don’t know if these were starters or not, but I can tell you that we were finishers. We arrested them,” he said.

Surveillance video from inside the store shows the teens walking in and splitting into groups to steal the items, including lip guards, football gloves, and hoodies.

WPVI, 6ABC, reported that none of the eight arrested juveniles have past criminal records, but the robbery seems planned: three of the players purchased small items, while five more went through the store shoplifting. Was this really their first attempt at crime, or have they been doing this in Olney and North Philly and getting away with it? Have the Philadelphia Police never caught them, or does Commissioner Kevin Bethel’s department simply not bother with them, knowing that the city’s George Soros-sponsored, criminal-loving and police-hating District Attorney, Larry Krasner, also known as Let ’em Loose Larry, would never prosecute them? If any of them do have prior arrest or conviction records, would those records be sealed so that “authorities” would be unable to say whether they had been previously apprehended?

These are questions we cannot answer, but we can ask another one: did the Philadelphia District Attorney’s Office’s and Mr Krasner’s lax attitude when it comes to retail theft create such a perception among the teens of the city that nothing would ever happen to them if they did rob a retail store that they simply internalized it, and never considered that trying that stupidity outside of Philly, that trying it in Florida of all places, might not turn out well for them?

Sheriff Judd also takes the team’s coach to task, reporting that the coach tried to talk the Sheriff’s Department into not arresting the eight (alleged) thieves. I suppose that it’s no surprise that the coach would stick up for his players, but coaching, what the Thoroughbreds are supposed to be about, is good and responsible citizenship through sports.

Oddly enough, I used to be 14 once, and I was once 15, in Mt Sterling, Kentucky, back in the days of quill pens and inkwells, yet, even without a father to guide me, even growing up poor, I was smart enough, I was well-taught enough, to know that robbing a retail store was a pretty bad idea. But, then again, while there wasn’t a lot of lawbreaking in our small town, we did actually have law enforcement.

That’s something that Philadelphia needs.