WELLINGTON, Fla. - — Several competitors at the Palm Beach International Equestrian Center are out thousands of dollars after their storage area was burglarized, and now there are calls for stronger security.
"My heart just dropped -- my stomach definitely hit the floor noticing everything of mine was gone," said Ashley Glica, who now feels violated.
Glica says the supplies and equipment she needs to compete with were stolen Saturday night inside the Palm Beach International Equestrian Center.
"We came back around 9:00 and noticed that everything in our room was totally gone. All our equipment, tack, my gear for riding, everything was gone from the room," Glica said.
It happened inside the center's temporary tent stabling area. Glica said the doors were locked, but she noticed the break-in late Saturday night, and Josee Stedding found out the next morning.
"Show equipment is very expensive, so it's a big loss," said Stedding, who has been competing for more than 20 years.
Both women say they each lost about $20,000 worth of equipment, but for Stedding many of the pieces are irreplaceable.
"Some of them were given to us by my husband's father, and most of those had a story to them," she said. "The horse show management really needs to be a little bit more proactive about their security."
With the rain on Wednesday, the grounds were nearly empty, but on a normal day the Winter Equestrian Festival draws huge crowds and is big business for the local economy.
The Palm Beach International Equestrian Center says it has cameras all around the property and calls this not a regular occurrence. In a statement, Equestrian Sport Productions management says it was informed of the situation and contacted PBSO. ESP said it makes every effort to keep horses, people, and property safe at PBIEC. With more than 80 acres, 17 tents and 6 permanent barns, almost 2,100 stalls (approximately 450 of which are likely used as tack stalls/storage), and more than 12 different entry points to the property, it is an enormous effort to police the grounds, but not one that ESP takes lightly. ESP does its best to provide security to everyone on the grounds and will be evaluating what we can improve for the future.
"Even if I can't recover my things, I just feel violated in a place that I'm supposed to feel comfortable in," Glica said.
ESP also said it employs 70 security guards, and five of them are on the grounds 24/7. A police report was taken, and the investigation is ongoing.