{"id":59767,"date":"2025-12-09T17:14:34","date_gmt":"2025-12-09T22:14:34","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/lakelandgazette.info\/news\/?p=59767"},"modified":"2025-12-09T17:14:42","modified_gmt":"2025-12-09T22:14:42","slug":"teen-football-players-called-out-by-florida-sheriff-after-alleged-store-theft","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/lakelandgazette.info\/news\/2025\/12\/09\/teen-football-players-called-out-by-florida-sheriff-after-alleged-store-theft\/","title":{"rendered":"Teen football players called out by Florida sheriff after alleged store theft"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Printed in the Toronto Sun<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">A group of Philadelphia teenagers accused of stealing from a Dick\u2019s Sporting Goods store in Florida have been publicly identified.<\/p>\n\n\n<div class=\"wp-block-image\">\n<figure class=\"aligncenter size-full\"><img data-dominant-color=\"787470\" data-has-transparency=\"false\" style=\"--dominant-color: #787470;\" loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"472\" height=\"354\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 472px) 100vw, 472px\" src=\"https:\/\/lakelandgazette.info\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/12\/sheriff_grady_judd_teen_suspects-e1765311147954.webp\" alt=\"\" class=\"wp-image-59768 not-transparent\" srcset=\"https:\/\/lakelandgazette.info\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/12\/sheriff_grady_judd_teen_suspects-e1765311147954.webp 472w, https:\/\/lakelandgazette.info\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/12\/sheriff_grady_judd_teen_suspects-e1765311147954-300x225.webp 300w\" \/><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">The eight teens, members of the United Thoroughbreds football team, were in Davenport, Fla., to face the Coco Tigers in the Prolifix Sportz National Championship.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">But Polk County Sheriff Grady Judd mocked the players-turned-alleged thieves in a press conference for missing the big game.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">\u201cI don\u2019t know if these were starters or not, but we were finishers,\u201d Judd said Monday.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">The youths didn\u2019t make it out of the store before they were arrested on Saturday morning.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">During the press conference, Judd not only named the teens, who were between the ages of 14 and 15, but he also held up a board with photos of Daimon Johnson, Elijah Myers, Ibm-Mahdee Abdul-Haqq, Jacob Smith, Marcus Hudgens, Mark Bryan, Tymir Smith and Tymir Speller.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\"><strong>Their plan wasn\u2019t exactly fool-proof<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">The sheriff noted how in a systematic manner, they allegedlycleaned out the store by splitting into two groups.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">One teen would purchase an item legitimately while the others browsed the shelves and racks over what products they would snatch.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">The buyer would then meet the others afterward and hand over the Dick\u2019s bag to use to sneak stolen items out of the store, authorities claimed.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">The surveillance footage, which store employees watched as the alleged thefts unfolded, according to police.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">\u201cThey stole, and they stole, and they stole,\u201d the sheriff said, showing a list of the items that were allegedly taken.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\"><strong>What Gov. DeSantis had to say<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">\u201cNot only did they steal, but ostensibly they may have cost their team the championship.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">The boys\u2019 coach arrived and begged to get them \u201cout of it instead of holding them accountable,\u201d to no avail.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<center><blockquote class=\"twitter-tweet\"><p lang=\"en\" dir=\"ltr\">They picked the wrong state \u2014 and the wrong county. <a href=\"https:\/\/t.co\/NexPk1Zvux\">https:\/\/t.co\/NexPk1Zvux<\/a><\/p>&mdash; Ron DeSantis (@RonDeSantis) <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/RonDeSantis\/status\/1998247856441065475?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\">December 9, 2025<\/a><\/blockquote> <script async src=\"https:\/\/platform.twitter.com\/widgets.js\" charset=\"utf-8\"><\/script>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Gov. Ron DeSantis even chimed in and shared footage from Judd\u2019s press conference.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">\u201cThey picked the wrong state \u2014 and the wrong county,\u201d he wrote in the caption.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">The championship game was held hours after the arrests \u2014 as the teen suspects were at a juvenile detention center.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">None of the boys had prior criminal records, but now face two felonies each \u2014 retail theft over $750 and conspiracy to commit retail theft.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">The suspects, who returned to Philadelphia after their team lost the championship 26-6 without them, will have to travel back to Florida to face charges.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">\u201cThey let the team down. What about the rest of the kids on the team?\u201d the sheriff continued.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">\u201cIf you don\u2019t steal, we\u2019re your new best friends. If you steal, we\u2019re your worst enemy.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Judd added: \u201cMerry Christmas.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Printed in the Toronto Sun A group of Philadelphia teenagers accused of stealing from a Dick\u2019s Sporting Goods store in Florida have been publicly identified. The eight teens, members of&hellip; <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":59768,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"inline_featured_image":false,"_uf_show_specific_survey":0,"_uf_disable_surveys":false,"wpai_generated_summary":"","footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":false,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":true,"token":"eyJpbWciOiJodHRwczpcL1wvaTAud3AuY29tXC9sYWtlbGFuZGdhemV0dGUuaW5mb1wvbmV3c1wvd3AtY29udGVudFwvdXBsb2Fkc1wvMjAyNVwvMTJcL3NoZXJpZmZfZ3JhZHlfanVkZF90ZWVuX3N1c3BlY3RzLWUxNzY1MzExMTQ3OTU0LndlYnA_Zml0PTQ3MiUyQzM1NCZzc2w9MSIsInR4dCI6IlRlZW4gZm9vdGJhbGwgcGxheWVycyBjYWxsZWQgb3V0IGJ5IEZsb3JpZGEgc2hlcmlmZiBhZnRlciBhbGxlZ2VkIHN0b3JlIHRoZWZ0IiwidGVtcGxhdGUiOiJoaWdod2F5IiwiZm9udCI6IiIsImJsb2dfaWQiOjE2MzA0MDY2MX0.3w0Eu8u8Ie0oYZy3TPQt9OJXpigdoGcugnPK7dovoLMMQ"},"version":2,"attached_media":[{"id":59768,"url":"http:\/\/lakelandgazette.info\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/12\/sheriff_grady_judd_teen_suspects-e1765311147954.webp","type":"image\/webp"}]},"_wpas_customize_per_network":false},"categories":[23],"tags":[12811],"class_list":["post-59767","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-sheriffs-corner","tag-teen-football-players-called-out-by-florida-sheriff-after-alleged-store-theft"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/lakelandgazette.info\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/59767","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/lakelandgazette.info\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/lakelandgazette.info\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lakelandgazette.info\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lakelandgazette.info\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=59767"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/lakelandgazette.info\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/59767\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":59769,"href":"https:\/\/lakelandgazette.info\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/59767\/revisions\/59769"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lakelandgazette.info\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/59768"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/lakelandgazette.info\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=59767"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lakelandgazette.info\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=59767"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lakelandgazette.info\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=59767"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}