NEW YORK — Two thieves swiped a ceremonial sword and a bullhorn from the office of St. John’s basketball coach Rick Pitino, a spokesperson for the Catholic institution in the New York City borough of Queens said Thursday.
Brian Browne said the theft happened Tuesday night shortly before 8 p.m. at the athletic department offices, which are located in the floors above the hardwood at Carnesecca Arena, where the Red Storm play.
He said the police investigation is ongoing, and it is not immediately clear if other items were stolen from the Hall of Fame coach’s office or other parts of the building.
Pitino initially posted to social media that he was “really upset” that an expensive bottle of wine was also missing from his office, but he later posted that he was just joking.
Police said in a statement that the two men somehow gained entry “without authorization” and removed a number of items before fleeing on a moped heading westbound on Union Turnpike.
The department declined to elaborate. But it also released surveillance footage Thursday showing the two men walking down a hallway in the building, with one carrying the stolen sword and the other holding the bullhorn.
Born in New York and raised on Long Island, Pitino was hired by St. John’s last year with the hopes of restoring a once storied Big East program that had its heyday in the 1980s but has been mired in mediocrity for more than two decades.
The Hall of Fame coach won NCAA championships at Kentucky in 1996 and Louisville in 2013, but the title at Louisville was vacated for NCAA violations,
Another NCAA case related to the FBI’s investigation into corruption in college basketball recruiting led to Pitino being fired by Louisville in 2017, though the NCAA eventually exonerated Pitino.
Before arriving at St. John’s, the 71-year-old coached three seasons at Iona, just north of New York City.
Pitino has also been head coach for the New York Knicks and Boston Celtics, Boston University, Providence College and Panathinaikos, a professional team in Athens.
The Associated Press contributed to this report.
