Friday - June 03, 2011

Hope They Had Insurance

Pinheads strike it rich in 80G bowling-alley heist

Two armed robbers hit pay dirt when they stuck up a Brooklyn bowling alley—hauling away $80,000 in cash that had just been collected for tournament winners.

An employee of the bowling alley had just walked out Maple Lanes’ back door, on 60th Street near 16th Avenue, at about 4 p.m. Wednesday when the gunmen forced him back inside, police sources said.

The thieves hit one worker in the head with the butt of a gun, then rounded up the four employees in the place, ordered them to lie face down on the floor, and proceeded to bind their hands with duct tape, the sources said.

The thugs, each described as wearing dark clothing, sunglasses and a cap, then stuffed the money into a trash bag and fled.

The cash had been collected earlier in the day as proceeds for three bowling leagues. Some of it had been earmarked for tourney winners later in the day.

None of the employees reported suffering any serious injuries, police said.

Maple Lanes is one of the last remaining regular bowling centers in Brooklyn NY, in the Bensonhurst neighborhood. They’ve been a family owned business for over 50 years, the business passing from father to son. The LaSpina family also owns several other bowling centers in Queens and Long Island. The alley has 48 lanes.

We are not getting the whole story here or the correct one; no league puts more than 5 bowlers on a team, so even if the 3 leagues mentioned each took up all the lanes, that would imply that each bowler paid $111 for that week’s bowling. No. Not gonna happen. $20, maybe $25 tops. No sensible business keeps weeks worth of cash on hand either; they take it to the bank every day.

I’ve never been to this place, but a little web research shows that they run an annual scholarship tournament which raises $60,000 or more. That’s my first guess although it’s pure conjecture because I don’t have their schedule; it looks like the Peter J LaSpina Sr Memorial Scholarship Tournament was run back in April, but they could certainly have more than one such tourney per year. Perhaps the tournament runs across several months; the weekly bowling paper (see pg 3) implies that it is now over. Yes, there is a weekly bowling paper. Actually there are many many local editions of it across the country.

The only other reason I could see for them to have that much cash on hand would be if the three leagues were all doing their prize payout that day. Figure teams of 4, $6.50 per bowler per week into the prize fund, 30 week season, full size leagues of 34 teams ... yeah, that’s 80 grand. And the prize payouts are always in cash. And the last of the winter leagues have ended by now. Knowing all of this would imply some kind of an inside job; no one not familiar with several of the leagues in that particular bowling center would have this kind of knowledge.

Maple Lanes is located in a demographically dynamic area; right now it’s smack dab in the middle of a big Jewish neighborhood with a synagogue right across the street. But a changing democgraphic makes for an uncertain future for the lanes, because the cold truth is that some demographic groups just aren’t into bowling. There have been plans afoot for several years now to rezone the property and to sell the land to apartment builders.

So who knows? I just hope that they followed USBC’s directive and had everything insured. That’s what it’s there for.

Which reminds me, as President of the little rinky dink summer league I’m on, I’d better get to my bowling alley and see if I have to sign papers and stuff. Including the insurance policy, just in case. Yes, I’m the president. I didn’t get elected; I volunteered. I have to talk to the owner about the schedule too; after 3 weeks of bowling it looks like we only have 5 teams, not the 8 we thought we would. Bowling is not doing so well in my part of the state.

Posted by Drew458     on 06/03/2011 at 09:27 AM   
Filed Under: • Bowling Blogging • Crime •  
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