‘Absolutely heartbreaking,’ Lucha Krewe has nearly $5,000 worth of sound equipment stolen

NEW ORLEANS (WVUE) -Along with their brightly colored masks, tights, dance, and wrestling moves, Lucha Krewe brings Latin music and culture to the parade route.

“When you look at some of the other carnival celebrations around the world, they are very international affairs. And I believe that New Orleans Mardi Gras should be an international affair as well,” said dance captain, Andrew Miragliotta.

But a huge part of that is the music.

Dance captain Andrew Miragliotta says their sound was nearly stolen when 5 thousand dollars worth of equipment and a generator disappeared from their storage unit on Sunday.

“So the idea that all of that work would be lost because all of a sudden we wouldn’t have sound or music to be able to do that was heartbreaking. Absolutely heartbreaking,” said Miragliotta.

“Sunday I went home and immediately filed a police report,” said Krewe president, Anna Brodrecht.

Brodrecht says she made the initial discovery, both the lock and some equipment were missing. So she left to get a lock and when she returned minutes later, more items were missing.

“It just really scared me because I was here all alone. You know, I wasn’t expecting things to be missing. So I go in a little bit of a panic… I think that the initial reaction was, where are you going to get $4,400 worth of equipment when literally every Mardi Gras crew needs that equipment,” said Brodrecht.

Even after years of fundraising and philanthropy to get to this point, without the music, it jeopardized Lucha’s chances to march in this year’s Mardi Gras.

“A lot of our fans are very proud of us and they’re proud of the things that we represent. To see that the sound system that brings the music to the streets was missing was a huge shock,” said Brodrecht.

Other Mardi Gras krewes stepped up, donating and loaning equipment.

“We were just overwhelmed with how supportive everybody was and how willing everybody was to give up their resources to make sure that we were able to roll in Mardi Gras and bring joy to the community,” said Brodrecht.

While their equipment is still missing and NOPD investigates, the Lucha Krewe will dance and march this year, bringing new meaning to their name, Lucha, fighting to overcome obstacles in the name of Mardi Gras.

“We’re going to give this a one-two punch and we’re going to be back out there,” said Brodrecht.

The krewe says they are working with property managers for surveillance video and improving security measures.

Because of reaching out about this report to the NOPD, an NOPD spokesperson says they are working now to investigate the missing equipment.

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