The Growing Black Market in Girls High-School Team Scorebooks

The Oregon City High School girls basketball team had their annual sleepover in the school's gym after their season ended with a loss in the state final.

They awoke to the sounds of prowlers going through their cars. From The Oregonian:

Among the items taken from senior Lindsey Shearer's car were her second-place medal, a necklace from a team-building exercise, her basketball uniforms and gear and her senior class project.

Thieves broke into coach Kurt Guelsdorf's car and took his basketball bag, which included state tournament videos, the team's season scorebook and a state tournament folder.

"That stuff doesn't have much value to anybody but us," Coach Guelsdorf told a reporter. Au contraire, Coach Clueless! My street sources tell me that a mint-condition girls' high school basketball team scorebook can fetch up to a carton of cigarettes on the black market. And for a middle school girls' lacrosse team scorebook? You could end up with an iPod Nano.

Smart coaches are keeping their scorebooks with them at all times in a briefcase handcuffed to their wrist.