A Las Vegas collision repair facility responded when it saw a local high school marching band trailer was stolen and later left stripped underneath a bridge in the city.

Ozzie Arias, BRC Coach and Transit regional manager, said he first learned about the incident on the news.

Faith Lutheran High School is a client of the facility, Arias said.

“I thought, ‘Wow, that is terrible,’” Arias said. “I thought to myself, ‘We can fix that for them.’”

Arias said he bought the 51,000 square foot facility that specializes in motor coaches, transit buses, tractors, trailers and recreational vehicles about three years ago.

“I bought this shop in disarray,” Arias said. “There was no clientele, no employees.”

The past three years has been spent on turning the business around and working toward a profit, he said.

As a local business, the goal has always been to give back to the community, he said. He said this was his first opportunity to be in a place to help.

A school spokesman told Fox 5 Vegas that the trailer itself was worth $20,000, while other content inside the vehicle was worth up to $25,000.

“Students are feeling anywhere from heartbroken to angry about this. They all feel violated,” the spokesperson told the news channel.

Band Director Dan Zeigner also said students used the trailer as a place to eat meals and celebrate wins together.

Arias said he arranged for the trailer to be towed to the shop and then assessed. He said the damage was extensive.

The vehicle had to be stripped down and completely re-done. The shop also decided to paint the trailer instead of wrapping it, he said.

Overall, he estimated his team did more than 200 hours of work on the vehicle over a few months. It would have likely cost about $12,000, he said.

“They came by and they were as happy as could be,” Arias said. “They couldn’t believe it was the same trailer.”

Zeigner told FOX 5 Vegas they were thankful to the facility who helped fix the trailer.

“Coming from the pictures that we saw — of the side panels being damaged, the wrap being torn off, no tires, no wheels — to this beautiful trailer… This is above and beyond anything that we could have imagined coming back to us,” Zeigner told the news station.

Arias said that once his business is more established, he plans to give back to the community more.

“Once you are a success business, you want to give back to the community,” Arias said. “We are still working toward that.”

IMAGES

Faith Lutheran High School band trailer after repaired by BRC Coach and Transit in Las Vegas/BRC Coach and Transit.