Estimated read time: 2-3 minutes
This archived news story is available only for your personal, non-commercial use. Information in the story may be outdated or superseded by additional information. Reading or replaying the story in its archived form does not constitute a republication of the story.
SALT LAKE CITY — A man allegedly stole thousands of dollars of property from the University of Utah basketball locker room. He has been arrested and is in jail because former members of the basketball team cornered him in a locker room and confronted him about the thefts.
Ernest Hartman, 46, allegedly stole items ranging from cameras, laptops and hard drives to clothing that belonged to Utah teams and sold the items online. But it was a unique backpack that went missing that eventually led to the alleged robber being caught.
Scott McByrne, team video coordinator, had heard about the thefts from the athletic department, so when he went to the Huntsman Center and found the door open, red flags went up.
"These boxes under my desk here were all over the place and everything was kind of thrown everywhere, and I was like, 'Oh no,' " McByrne said. "He walked off with our hard drive that had everything from last year."
An email went out, asking staff and players to keep an eye out for anything suspicious.
On Tuesday, some team managers saw a man wearing a backpack with a New Jersey Nets logo with the number 35. They knew that McByrne had previously worked for the New York Nets, and that the unique backpack belonged to him, not the man that was carrying it.
"It was very unique. It was different. It wasn't something that everybody on campus had. So as soon as they saw that. . ." McByrne said.
The team managers were able to hold Hartman until police arrived.
"We still feel like we're kind of athletic enough to hold him there," said team manager Hans Steinbrenner.
Officials said that Hartman had a master key, so he could slip in and out of the building at will. It is still unsure how Hartman got the master key.
