Stolen marker recovered at Central Florida Paintball

At this year's Tampa NPPL, Team 68 Caliber player Antonio “727 Hitman” Braccili fell victim to a thief. His 2005 Dynasty Shocker was taken from his gearbag while he was out on the field competing. The 15 year old had spent the previous summer working for his father's construction company to earn the cash to pay for the marker.

All too often players lose thousands of dollars in gear to thieves who prowl major events looking for equipment to steal. Every organized league has this problem, and in many cases vendors are hit just as hard as players. In the case of Braccili's Shocker, it was reported to the NPPL immediately upon discovering the theft and he finished the event using a borrowed GZ Intimidator.

As it turned out, the marker never left Florida, and was recovered this past weekend at Central Florida Paintball in Lakeland, Florida. Braccili was practicing with Team Sentinels, and he noted a Jacksonville Raider holding a blue Dynasty Shocker. He walked up to the player, later revealed to be a new addition to the Raider's D1 squad and asked to take a look at it. Braccili was shocked to see that the serial number on the marker was the same as his stolen Dynasty. LP, Brian and Trevor (who had possession of the marker) immediately handed the marker to Central Florida Paintball's John Smith and Smith called the Lakeland Police to investigate. D/S Smith of the Lakeland Police currently has possession of the marker as evidence.

The current story unfolding is that Trevor was trying out the Dynasty to see if it was something he wanted to trade his Intimidator for. Since he'd just made the Jacksonville Raiders D1 squad, he needed to have a Smart Parts marker to comply with their sponsorship agreement with Smart Parts. He was contemplating the trade with CFP local, who'd traded his DM5 for the Dynasty with yet another player, who allegedly swapped for the marker while at Tampa. At this point the CFP local can prove ownership of the DM5 he swapped the Dynasty for, and we would imagine that he'll be getting that marker back. At some point someone's going to be out a marker, and we would assume that that person is going to be the thief.

While the Dynasty Shocker in question has been partially cannibalized, it's still fully functioning and as the investigation progresses it'll be returned to Braccili in due course. As a general rule, property taken in thefts are very rarely recovered, especially with paintball gear, which more often than not doesn't have a serial number to provide traceability. This story has a happy ending because the stolen property was recovered, thanks mainly to Jacksonville Raiders' newest addition and field owner John Smith. We would like to thank LP, Brian, Trevor and John for all their help in this matter, and commend them for their honesty.