FRIENDSWOOD – A Friendswood business owner is offering a $2,000 reward for information that will help Harris County Sheriff deputies find her 18-foot trailer.
“I had to save up for 10 years to be able to invest in something big enough to carry everything,” said Jennifer Forst, owner of the JDF Elite Dance Company.
Deputies say her gray trailer was taken on Thanksgiving night.
Surveillance video shows two men in a truck parked next to the trailer, using a bolt cutter and hitching the trailer to their vehicle. Nothing was inside, but the thieves drive off with a $6,000 trailer Forst is still paying off.
“They took something from us that is valuable and important to us and crucial for what these kids do. They win because they put their everything into it,” she said.
The dance team uses it to haul large props to and from competitions.
“It’s just what we do. We just like the props. It’s kind of my niche to say to speak,” Forst explained.
It’s a niche the company has been awarded for multiple times shown by the number of trophies and awards covering the studio.
Despite the awards and accolades, Forst said the trailer means so much to her. She said it’s another proof the dance families have buy-in to her passion and support her and the kids.
“I’ve worked really hard to get where I am and I just think it’s awful people are willing to do that, not only to me, but the kids,” she said.
It is an 18-foot gray trailer with black trimming around it and a triangular tip to the hitch. She said there is one scrap towards the front made at their last competition when they were moving a prop out.
The team is two months away from competition and without the trailer, Forst may have to scrap those performances.
“These kids have been working hours on hours perfecting these dances,” she said. Now, they may have to change everything.”
One parent is trying to avoid changing choreography and set up a GoFundMe to try and raise funds for a new trailer.
“We’re going to figure it out,” said organizer Sonjia Solomon. “We have to figure out something. That’s the thing about JDF, we preserve.”
Until then, Forst and the kids are taking it one step at a time.