PASADENA, Texas (KTRK) — An investigation is underway in Pasadena, the place police say a person disappeared after taking cash from households to assist put collectively a softball workforce.
The HTX sliders softball workforce roster is crammed with gamers who’ve hopes to someday play on the school degree. Kristina Alvarez’s daughter performs for them.
“When she tried out, apparently, she made the workforce proper off the bat, so she was tremendous excited,” Alvarez stated.
Alvarez says a lot of that pleasure got here from the guarantees made by a person who claimed to be a softball coach who was placing collectively a workforce with the promise of serving to her daughter and others attain their school goals.
The identical was informed to Stephen Grisham and Tabitha Solis.
“He was supposedly identified to be an excellent coach and to assist recruit ladies to get onto school groups,” stated Solis.
ABC13 shouldn’t be naming the person as a result of he hasn’t been charged. Alvarez stated she heard about him and met the person after seeing a web based publish.
“There was a flier on Fb for this choose workforce, showcase workforce. We needed to meet up at 3k for them to check out,” Alvarez stated.
After the ultimate roster of 13 gamers was set, Alvarez and different dad and mom say they have been informed they needed to pay him lots of of {dollars} for issues comparable to event charges and uniforms.
“He despatched a textual content to the group, ‘Both you pay tonight (or) your lady would not pay,” Stephen Grisham stated.
As a substitute of getting the gamers able to compete, the dad and mom inform us the person, who they thought was going to ship on all his guarantees, went silent.
“He was canceling the practices. He canceled the event… Afterward, I heard by means of texts that he wasn’t answering, and he disconnected the group assembly,” Solis stated.
“We have been checking to see if he was OK as a result of his story previous to that was coping with a dying in his household, and he was in a automotive wreck,” Alvarez stated.
These households informed Eyewitness Information reporter Mo Haider that although Pasadena police have discovered him, he nonetheless hasn’t reached out to the dad and mom.
“Saddening, very unhappy. I want I may have a greater assertion than that. I imply, nonetheless struck that it occurred,” Grisham stated.
Regardless of the monetary obstacles, the dad and mom are ensuring their children’ softball goals keep alive. They’re now utilizing their very own cash to fund the workforce going ahead.
“It is my daughter’s dream. She put herself on the market. She’s combating, so I’ll battle for her,” Alvarez stated.
Pasadena Police are involved with the person and are asking extra households to come back ahead in the event that they’ve fallen sufferer to the incident.
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