Teens in robot-building competition face uphill fight after back-to-back thefts

After thieves broke into a shed at a San Francisco high school to steal equipment on Christmas Eve, teens on a robotics team engineered a solution — installing more deadbolts, KPIX reported.

On Saturday, thieves struck the shed again — this time smashing through a wall to avoid the new locks, KGO reported.

In all, the Ruth Asawa School of the Arts Cyberdragons robotics team lost $11,000 in shop tools, computers and other equipment to the thieves, KNTV reported.

The back-to-back thefts also cost the team time to prepare for an upcoming robot-building competition, KGO reported.

“There is a competition in 8 to 9 weeks,” said team member Alex Lindhart, KNTV reported. “We will go there and compete with teams from all over the world and we need to be able to come with a fully built and fully programmed robot.”

Drill presses, power saws and other tools stolen by the thieves are needed to assemble the robot, but the Cyberdragons also lost vital programming work, KGO reported.

“Our software team is doing all they can to rewrite all the code that was lost when the computers were stolen and we’re just trying to recover from lost time,” said Teela Damian, KPIX reported.

The Cyberdragons have set up a GoFundMe account to raise money to replace the missing gear. The fund already has exceeded its $11,000 goal, raising more than $13,000 by Monday morning.

Even rival robotics teams have donated to the campaign, KPIX reported, fueling the team’s drive to bounce back from the thefts.

“We (have) to keep going,” said Ernesto Fox, KGO reported. “We have come too far to stop now.”