October 26, 2009 | 12:09 pm

Maccabi has $22,000 stolen from locker room at Staples Center

Posted by Brad A. Greenberg

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Maccabi Tel Aviv’s coach refusing to leave Madison Square Garden after getting tossed from the team’s game against the Knicks might not have been the lowlight of their U.S. trip. After playing the Knicks, Maccabi flew west to face off against the Clippers (also an NBA team).

Somebody entered a locker room at Staples Center and stole more than $22,000 in cash and property from members of an Israeli basketball team that played the Los Angeles Clippers in an exhibition game this week, police said Friday.

“An unknown suspect was able to gain entry to the locker room of the Israeli team,” said Lt. Albert Gavin of the Los Angeles Police Department’s Central Station. “It was during halftime that they noticed the property missing. And then they lost the game.”

The Clippers defeated Maccabi Electra Tel Aviv, 108-96, Tuesday. Maccabi, which has won 47 Israeli national championships, also lost to the New York Knicks, 106-91, Sunday at Madison Square Garden.

The LAPD didn’t learn of the theft until after the game was over, Gavin said.

“The suspect took in excess of $15,000 in U.S. currency and in excess of $7,000 worth of watches and other jewelry,” Gavin said

That’s from a dispatch my old colleague from the San Bernardino Sun, Guy McCarthy, wrote for the City News Service wire. He later notes that Maccabi was playing the Clippers to raise money for Migdal Ohr, the world’s largest orphanage.

See what trying to do a little good will get you?