England's World Cup training equipment was stolen on June 13 while being transferred from their pre-tournament base in Florida to their training facility at Swope Soccer Village in Kansas City [1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6]. The stolen items included balls, boots, signed jerseys, goalkeeper gloves, training kits, and other gear valued at approximately US$18,000 [7, 8, 9, 10].
Two men, Mustafa Salik and Erfan Kamal, were arrested and charged with receiving stolen property on June 13 in connection with the theft [7, 8, 9, 10]. Jackson County prosecutor Melesa Johnson said, "Jackson County will not tolerate any criminal activity that targets World Cup visitors, including the international teams that have travelled here to compete. We thank the Kansas City Police Department and our on-call attorneys for their quick work investigating this incident and filing charges immediately" [7].
Authorities reportedly recovered most of the stolen gear [7, 8, 9, 10]. England goalkeeper Dean Henderson said, "I got them back, so it’s all good. I think they got everything back, so it’s all good" [7]. Defender Dan Burn added, "I've not lost anything personally, we found out from you guys [the media]. It's with the police now so not sure how much I can comment. It's not really been spoken about, so that just shows for us that they aren't too worried about it - it's not really disrupted our preparations" [9]. He also noted, "Obviously it was to do with the police. So I don’t know how much people know about it. We didn’t know a lot about it, but I’ve got all my kit and all my boots" [7].
The theft happened shortly before England's arrival in Kansas City on June 13, where their first training session was scheduled for 5 pm local time that day [1, 2, 3, 11, 6]. Despite the incident, the England squad held a light training session in front of fans at Swope Soccer Village after arriving [7, 8, 10].
Kansas City Mayor Quinton Lucas said, "Public safety officials at the local, state and federal levels are working to trace where in the United States the items were seized and all individuals who may have been involved. Further information will be provided by authorities at a later time" [3]. The case remains under investigation by local, state, and federal authorities in Kansas City [3, 7, 9, 6].
On June 14, a tornado warning forced England players to shelter indoors in Kansas City [11]. England is scheduled to play their World Cup Group L opener against Croatia in Dallas on June 17 [1, 2, 3, 12, 6].
