Cuban pavilion dancer pleads for suitcase's return after special costumes stolen

A Winnipeg dancer set to perform on Sunday at Folklorama's Cuban pavilion is scrambling to find some new costumes after a suitcase full of dresses was stolen from her car.

Katherine Meneses was planning to head from work to rehearsal on Friday, so she put a small suitcase in her car filled with about six different costumes for her and other dancers.

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She said the car's trunk was full, and since the suitcase was black she thought it would be OK on the floor on the passenger side of her car, which she said was locked.

She parked her car on Hargrave Street while doing some errands for Meals on Wheels, where she works, and then drove to her brother's house.

"When I opened the door and checked it wasn't there," she said.

"I didn't even realize until I got to my brother's place because I was too busy to think about it."

She was devastated. While the value of the costumes is a few hundred dollars, they are all handmade and very important to the presentation of the group's dance, she said.  

"They are very important. They are crucial," she said.

"I have about nine to 10 dances for the show and I need them. We don't have extra for those dancers. I really, really need them. So we are just trying to see what we can do."

Meneses took to social media to put the word out that the costumes had been stolen.

She said she is hopeful that someone will spot them, or that the person who took them will realize they only have value to the dancers.

"There is nothing there of value to them," she said, asking for anyone who may locate them to drop them off at the RBC Convention Centre.  

"It's for the people and to promote our culture and pavilion and to just show our nice pavilion to the public. I am frustrated but it's okay. Just leave it and I will be happy. I just need them back, that's all."

Meneses said it is a small, carry-on size suitcase that is black. She said, just in case they aren't returned, the group is also looking into other options for costumes.