CONIFER, Colo. (CBS4) – With a regional competition less than two weeks away, a local robotics team is now missing a big chunk of their equipment. The team from Conifer High School believes it was stolen off of their bus on their way home from an event in Utah.

Aaliyah LaBarge, a junior on the team, says it was their first big event after months of designing and building a competition-ready robot.

“Every night until 9 o’clock at night just working as hard as we could to get this thing finished,” she said.

The team didn’t do as well as they had hoped, but looked at it as a trial run for the regional tournament in Denver.

“It was practice, and we weren’t upset about it. We just know what we need to work on,” she said.

That outlook changed when they arrived back home and realized they were missing valuable gear.

“’Where is our battery cart?’ ‘Where is our electrical cart?’ And then ‘Where are our laptops?’” LaBarge said.

Chris Hanson, one of the team mentors, was able to track down security video of a dinner stop the team made in Salt Lake City. There they believe someone stole their equipment as well as some personal belongings from a second Denver-area team (from George Washington High School).

The loss, Hanson says, will cost the team thousands of dollars.

“We have the kids go out and fundraise. They can sell butter braids or cookies or whatever it is and get donations to fund their operations for the year,” Hanson said.

It’s a kink in their plans they certainly weren’t expecting.

“It’s kind of heartbreaking. You put so much time and effort into this for it to be just taken away,” LaBarge said.

But it is one they plan to work through as a team.

While the team has already relaunched fundraising efforts, they are working against the clock and really need the equipment to get their robot ready.

If you would like to help you can reach out to the team online or you can reach the team’s marketing and fundraiser mentor Mindy Hanson via email.