Thief steals Apollo Beach dance studio's trailer filled with $10,000 worth of recital equipment, owner says

APOLLO BEACH, Fla. - It's a tough start to 2023 for a Hillsborough County dance studio for children. The owners said thieves took off with their trailer, which was filled with dance and recital equipment.

The 6x10 silver trailer has the heart and soul of Armetta’s Grand Jete Studio of Dance, but on the morning of New Year's Eve, the owners realized it was missing from its normal parking spot behind the dance studio, located along U.S. Highway 41.

"The contents of the trailer are useless to anyone who isn’t a dance studio owner," said Aysza Armetta, one of the studio’s owners. "One of our neighbors said she noticed on Friday it wasn’t there. She just thought we hitched it up because we’re in the middle of moving right now, expanding the dance studio. So, she thought it was gone because of that, but it turns out, it was missing."

The dance studio owners filed a report with the Hillsborough County Sheriff’s Office and learned they weren't alone.

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"They let us know that on Thursday, there was another report about 200 yards from here of people stealing tires off of trailers," Armetta said. "Unfortunately instead of just stealing our tires, they stole our whole trailer and the contents within it."

The trailer had supplies for arts and crafts, sentimental items like old dance recital videos they were hoping to digitize soon, and supplies that are essential for successfully putting on recitals.

"We have backdrops in there for our dance recitals. We have our step and repeat that our kids like to take pictures in front of during spirit week. During the first week of dance, we keep it out front," Armetta described. "We have walkie-talkies that we use at dance recitals, a big bin that we use for dance recitals and as long as we have that bin, our recitals run smoothly."

She is hoping neighboring businesses may have captured what happened on surveillance video. They plan to go door-to-door in search of possible clues.

"We’re thinking around $10,000 worth of everything all said and done," Armetta said, "It’s not something we anticipated going into the new year having to do."