the sheriff\u2019s office.<\/a><\/p>\nEight teens from a Philadelphia youth football team were arrested and accused of stealing over $2,000 worth of merchandise from a Dick\u2019s Sporting Goods on Dec. 6, 2025. Polk County Sheriff’s Office<\/p>\n
One of the kids, 15-year-old Marcus Hudgens, made a purchase at a checkout line to get a \u201cDicks\u201d bag before meeting up with the other teens in the middle of the store.<\/p>\n
Security footage allegedly captured the young thieves stuffing items into the bag as they made their way through the store.<\/p>\n
Daimon Johnson, 15, Mark Bryan, 15, and Ibn Mahdee Abdul Haqq, 14, grabbed the bag and walked out of the store, bypassing all registers and into the parking lot where they were stopped by awaiting deputies.<\/p>\n
Hudgens, Elijah Myers,14, Tymir Speller, 15, Tymir Smith, 14, and Jacob Scott, 15, were located inside the store and detained.<\/p>\n
The teens were spotted wandering around inside the Davenport store before stuffing items into bags. Polk Sheriff \/ YouTube<\/p>\n
One of the teens made a purchased in the store so they could use the branded bag to sneak out with the stolen items. Polk Sheriff \/ YouTube<\/p>\n
Abdul-Haqq allegedly stole merchandise inside a black backpack while Bryan was holding the store\u2019s bag.<\/p>\n
Speller was found with a stolen beanie down his pants.<\/p>\n
The teens are accused of stealing 47 items totaling $2,296.07.<\/p>\n
Among the stolen merchandise were a $135 Nike hoodie, a $125 Nike women\u2019s running jacket, two $110 Under Armour hoodies and two $70 football gloves.<\/p>\n
\u201cThese juveniles were not from Polk County, they came here from Philly for a football tournament, and instead of representing their team with pride, they chose to steal \u2013 they are Thoroughbred thieves,\u201d Judd said. \u201cLet this be clear: it doesn\u2019t matter if you\u2019re from here or visiting, if you break the law in Polk County, you will be arrested and held accountable.\u201d<\/p>\n
The teens are accused of stealing 47 items totaling $2,296.07. Polk County Sheriff’s Office<\/p>\n
Polk County Sheriff Grady Judd gives an update on the retail theft at the Davenport, Florida store. Polk County Sheriff’s Office<\/p>\n
During the arrest, the team\u2019s coach, Raekwon Bynes, was called to the store and began pleading with cops and store employees to release the players, Judd said.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe coach who is responsible for them, you\u2019d think he would be interested in holding them accountable and responsible, instead, he goes to the deputies and begs them not to take these young men into custody,\u201d Judd said.<\/p>\n
\u201cOh don\u2019t arrest them, drop the charges, let them go,\u201d the coach allegedly said, according to the sheriff.<\/p>\n
\u201cThey were not taking bubblegum, one piece to chew. They stole over $2,000 worth of products. And when it was evident that they were going to be arrested, the coach says, \u2018Don\u2019t you guys have anything better to do then arrest these kids,’\u201d Judd said.<\/p>\n
Florida-based Cocoa Tigers U-14 routed the Thoroughbreds in the Prolifix Sportz AAU National Championship, winning 26-6. Polk County Sheriff’s Office<\/p>\n
\u201cI don\u2019t know how you do things in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, but in Polk County, Florida, we lock you up for stealing, for being a thief,\u201d he added.<\/p>\n
The teens were arrested and charged with third-degree felony Retail Theft over $750 and third-degree felony Conspiracy to Commit Retail Theft.<\/p>\n
They were transported to the Juvenile Assessment Center and missed playing in the championship game.<\/p>\n
Florida-based Cocoa Tigers U-14 routed the Thoroughbreds in the Prolifix Sportz AAU National Championship, winning 26-6.<\/p>\n
\u201cI don\u2019t know if they were starters or not, but we are finishers, we arrested them,\u201d Judd said.<\/p>\n
\u201cYou chose to be arrested and that\u2019s the way it is,\u201d he added. \u201cAnd for the coach, you\u2019re way off base here, buddy. Way off base. You\u2019re the ultimate loser.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Eight players from a Philadelphia youth football team allegedly stole over $2,000 worth of merchandise from a Dick\u2019s…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":57310,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[8],"tags":[2694,9154,5918,69,71,70,31552,209,302,26214],"class_list":{"0":"post-57309","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-philadelphia","8":"tag-arrests","9":"tag-dicks-sporting-goods","10":"tag-florida","11":"tag-philadelphia","12":"tag-philadelphia-headlines","13":"tag-philadelphia-news","14":"tag-teens","15":"tag-theft","16":"tag-us-news","17":"tag-youth-football"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/57309","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=57309"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/57309\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/57310"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=57309"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=57309"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=57309"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}