{"id":391083,"date":"2026-09-05T05:04:11","date_gmt":"2026-09-05T05:04:11","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/391083\/"},"modified":"2026-09-05T05:04:11","modified_gmt":"2026-09-05T05:04:11","slug":"florida-teen-works-to-replace-basketball-hoop-dragged-away-by-bus","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/391083\/","title":{"rendered":"Florida teen works to replace basketball hoop dragged away by bus"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>Cape Coral teen works to replace basketball hoop dragged away by taekwondo school bus<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/www.gulfcoastnewsnow.com\/news-team\/a91bf410-a43b-4484-9bee-db360978dd2a\" aria-label=\"Edward Franco profile page\" class=\"css-15eikfp\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\"><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/09\/1788584651_536_a91bf410-a43b-4484-9bee-db360978dd2a_1772510870.JPG\" width=\"48\" height=\"48\" alt=\"Edward Franco\" loading=\"lazy\"\/><\/a>CAPE CORAL, Fla. \u2014<\/p>\n<p data-node-id=\"0\">A 13-year-old Cape Coral basketball player is saving money to replace his basketball hoop after it went missing Wednesday when a private bus damaged it and dragged it down the street.  <\/p>\n<p data-node-id=\"1\">&#8220;I got sad and started looking around the neighborhood,&#8221; said Elio Camejo, who discovered the hoop was gone when he returned home.  <\/p>\n<p data-node-id=\"2\">Camejo said he often plays basketball with friends to train and improve his skills.<\/p>\n<p data-node-id=\"3\">&#8220;I play here with my friends every day to train and get better, and I felt really bad that it wasn&#8217;t there anymore,&#8221; he said.  <\/p>\n<p data-node-id=\"4\"><a href=\"https:\/\/www.gulfcoastnewsnow.com\/article\/video-bus-drags-basketball-hoop-cape-coral-florida\/73609617\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\">Video first shared on Thursday<\/a> showed a private bus dragging Camejo&#8217;s hoop from one end of the street to the other on Southeast 6th Avenue and Southeast 46th Lane.<\/p>\n<p data-node-id=\"5\"> The owner of Black Belt Taekwondo in Cape Coral confirmed off-camera that it was their bus, which had no children inside at the time.  <\/p>\n<p data-node-id=\"6\">However, initial concerns from drivers and parents were mistakenly directed at a different business. David Torres, owner of United Martial Arts in Fort Myers, explained the confusion.  <\/p>\n<p data-node-id=\"7\">&#8220;Once I identified that the problem was in Cape Coral, then I realized that it was one of the buses that did not belong to us,&#8221; Torres said.  <\/p>\n<p data-node-id=\"8\">Torres said the bus, which still partially displayed United Martial Arts branding and colors, had been sold to Black Belt Taekwondo. Following the backlash, Black Belt Taekwondo&#8217;s owner informed Torres that they are now repainting the bus.  <\/p>\n<p data-node-id=\"9\">Gulf Coast News captured the moments a bus was being painted white behind Black Belt Taekwondo in Cape Coral. <\/p>\n<p data-node-id=\"10\">&#8220;When you&#8217;re driving a big bus like that, you always have to be aware of what&#8217;s going on in the bus and outside the bus and around the bus,&#8221; Torres said.  <\/p>\n<p data-node-id=\"11\">In the meantime, Camejo is working to save money for a new basketball hoop.<\/p>\n<p data-node-id=\"12\">&#8220;I&#8217;m working harder. I&#8217;m trying to help several neighbors with jobs to see if I can save up some money to buy myself a new basketball hoop,&#8221; he said.  <\/p>\n<p data-node-id=\"13\">Black Belt Taekwondo&#8217;s owner said he plans to contact Camejo and his family after being asked if he would be able to assist. <\/p>\n<p data-node-id=\"14\">Count on Gulf Coast News to keep you updated if Camejo gets a new basketball hoop. <\/p>\n<p data-node-id=\"15\">DOWNLOAD\u202fthe free\u202f<a href=\"https:\/\/qrco.de\/gcnapp\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Gulf Coast News app<\/a>\u202ffor your latest news and alerts on breaking news, weather, sports, entertainment, and more on your phone or tablet. And check out the <a href=\"https:\/\/www.verylocal.com\/wbbh-ft-myers\/\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Very Local Gulf Coast app<\/a> to stream news, entertainment and original programming on your TV<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Cape Coral teen works to replace basketball hoop dragged away by taekwondo school bus CAPE CORAL, Fla. \u2014&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":391084,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[14],"tags":[153045,156377,156370,2674,156374,209,211,210,59162,156379,156366,104,28,897,13958,4329,213,2159,156376,8075,156368,156375,156378,7281,156373,156372,156369,156367,156371,221],"class_list":["post-391083","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-cape-coral","tag-basketball-hoop","tag-basketball-player","tag-black-belt-taekwondo","tag-bus","tag-bus-damage","tag-cape-coral","tag-cape-coral-headlines","tag-cape-coral-news","tag-cape-coral-teen","tag-david-torres","tag-elio-camejo","tag-entertainment","tag-florida","tag-fort-myers","tag-friend","tag-gulf-coast-news","tag-late-news","tag-money","tag-neighborhood-video","tag-owner","tag-private-bus","tag-repainting-bus","tag-save-money","tag-school-bus","tag-southeast-46th-lane","tag-southeast-6th-avenue","tag-taekwondo-bus","tag-teen-basketball","tag-united-martial-arts","tag-weather"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/391083","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=391083"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/391083\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/391084"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=391083"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=391083"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=391083"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}