A youth rugby club is still trying to play catch-up after someone stole $17,000 from its bank account last year.
Maryland Exiles Youth Rugby Club head coach Dan Soso said the money disappeared over the course of three days, after the club’s Sandy Spring Bank account was hacked in September of 2023.
“It was quite a shock for us,” Soso told WTOP. “These kids really worked hard to save the money. To see the fruits of our labor were all stolen by somebody with a clever mind and a laptop was really, really devastating.”
Soso said he received a call from the bank the club uses about $1,000 being overdrawn from their account. Soon after, he discovered someone had broken into the account using CashApp and set up continuous withdrawals of $300 which took place every 15 minutes over the three days.
“In the end of three and a half days, they completely depleted the account,” Soso said. “Nobody at the bank notified us — nothing.”
He said the money stolen paid for the team to operate, including costs for renting fields and buying equipment. The funds also helped players whose families were facing economic hardship play in the club and pay for the team’s trip to a rugby festival in North Carolina this year.
“To hear that someone’s taken the money, it puts a lot of players in the situation where playing rugby for them might not even be a possibility,” said 17-year-old rugby player Eric Ishekwene.
Soso said alumni have stepped in to help keep the team operating, and the team has been working to fundraise to make up the lost funds.
Soso said the club is working to replenish the funds lost and raise enough money to take them to North Carolina. He said that while the money won’t come in time for the rugby festival, they want to plan a trip to Charlotte over spring break for the players.
Soso said Montgomery County Police are investigating the theft. The coach said if he had the chance to talk to the person who took the money, he said he’d want to know why they did what they did.
“I can’t believe you’d do it to a whole bunch of kids that are really working hard, and trying to do the right thing,” he said.
Ishekwene had the same question but said he is hopeful the team will be able to raise enough money in time for the North Carolina trip.
“It’s not only a big let down for me, but a big let down for the other kids who literally just want to play the sport,” he said.
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