El Paso gym forced to restock equipment after being burglarized during pandemic closure

EL PASO, Texas-- All gyms in the Borderland have had a rough start to the year due to the Covid-19 closures. Fit For Life in west El Paso has had to deal with the added obstacle of restocking their equipment after they were robbed.

"I show up close to 7 p.m. and I see my gym was completely empty, like empty as in all the weights are gone, all the barbells are gone," Mike Olivas, owner of Fit For Life gym, said.

The local gym has only been open a year and they have had their obstacles, however this is something they were not expecting to have to deal with.

"How can someone do this, all businesses are closed or struggling and just the fact that someone would think it was ok to do this during Covid-19, just the fact that they felt entitled to do something like this I am still speechless," Olivas said.

The gym has had to work to restock their equipment, a difficult task during this time given that most retailers are still closed due to the virus.

"Prices have skyrocketed, equipment has been very scarce so we have had to hunt things down just to get our equipment back, just this morning we were online just looking at equipment we still need to have replaced," Claudia Perez-Olivas, the gym's co-owner said.

While they were still working to replace stolen equipment, they are grateful their members have stuck with them through this time. They are now asking for the public's help in finding whoever is behind the theft.

"We are just asking that if anyone knows anything that they come forward and do the right thing, especially with the way things are right now it's so important to do the right thing by others," Perez-Olivas said.

For the gym's owners this has been a test of their strength for their business as they deal with both the pandemic and a theft.

"We had a moment where we were not doing well and we thought we need to get up from this, we need to come back stronger and we are not going to let this one isolated incident define who we are, we, are way more stronger than that," Perez-Olivas said.

If you are interested in checking out Fit For Life gym for yourself, feel free to follow this link.