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Douglas Bray (Antioch Police Department/Contributed)
My Town: Antioch

The president of the Antioch Youth Sports Complex was arrested Tuesday on suspicion of stealing sports and maintenance equipment from storage sheds there and reselling it on Craigslist.

Douglas Bray, 47, of Brentwood, is suspected of felony grand theft and possession of stolen property, Antioch police said. He was booked into County Jail in Martinez and was being held on $40,000 bail.

Several equipment thefts had been reported in the past year and a half from the nonprofit sports complex, which opened in 1995, but there were no leads, according to police.

Last week, a person who had purchased used softball equipment on Craigslist realized that the equipment had belonged to a youth league, and told police. Police determined Bray had been the seller.

They served a search warrant at his Brentwood home and found "a large amount" of sports and maintenance equipment.

Antioch police Sgt. Steve Bias said initial estimates put the value of the stolen property at $20,000. The investigation is ongoing, he said.

The Antioch Youth Sports Complex board of directors declined to comment on the arrest.

Antioch Little League, Delta Baseball League and the Delta Youth Soccer League are among the organizations that play at the Wilbur Avenue complex's nine baseball fields, which can be reconfigured as six soccer fields.

Dennis Felix, executive vice president of Antioch Little League, said his organization had bases, drags,

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rakes and shovels stolen from the sports complex. He said the league spent $1,500 to replace the bases.

Felix said he was surprised to hear that someone so active with youth sports was suspected of the thefts. He said Bray was a former member of the Delta Baseball League's board of directors, and that he frequently helped out with maintenance at the sports complex.

"I wouldn't have guessed it would be somebody that closely related to the organizations that are down there," Felix said.

David Wood, president of Delta Baseball League's board, declined to comment.

Police are working to contact officials from the sports leagues whose equipment was stolen.

Reach Hilary Costa at 925-779-7166. Follow her at Twitter.com/hilaryccosta.