Thieves Welcome Home Olympian

Bora Gulari

U.S. Sailing Team member Bora Gulari touched down in Detroit (MI) from Rio on Tuesday night (Aug. 23), coming home to what concluded an exhilarating Rio Olympic Games experience. But when he headed out to the Bay View Yacht Club Wednesday morning to get back in the water, he realized his homecoming is now bittersweet.

“I drove down here and started to assemble the boat,” Gulari said. But when he got there, he found his big red rolling suitcase with all his gear in it was gone. Gulari had left the bag in his truck in his driveway.

When he went back to his home, he noticed the drag marks across his lawn. Someone had stolen his gear bag right out of his truck. “It’s my life in that suitcase,” he said. “All the other stuff from the Olympics is just stuff they’ve given me.”

What they stole wasn’t Team USA gear, like shirts, but his gear bag with about $10,000 worth of custom tools that are only useful to him for sailing, his spinnakers, his Olympic bib and his wetsuits.

He can’t even put his boat in the water right now because he has no gear.

Gulari went to the University of Michigan and has lived in Detroit for the last nine years. When we interviewed him pre-Rio, he was emotional when discussing living here and how much he loved Detroit. Now, it’s a different emotion entirely.

“It just makes me sick about my neighborhood, where I’ve had the utmost pride,” Gulari said.

Gulari said he won’t ask any questions if his gear bag is returned.

Epilogue: Bora reported today (Aug. 25) that his gear, less two sets of loud Oakley sunglasses, has been recovered.

Source: Click on Detroit