Hall of Famer Packs Car Full of Top Lifetime Trophies and Flees LA Fires, Awakes to New Tragedy in the Morning
Pam Shriver, the Hall of Fame tennis player and former professional athlete, experienced a significant loss this week when her car was stolen near Los Angeles, taking with it several of her prized trophies from a legendary career.
Shriver had parked her Dodge Durango Hellcat in the lot of the DoubleTree hotel in Marina del Rey, California, where she was staying after fleeing the Pacific Palisades fire, according to an ESPN report.
When she went to retrieve the vehicle early Thursday morning, it was gone. Inside were five U.S. Open trophies, five French Open plates, one Australian Open trophy, and a collection of family photos.
“I was just starting to take things out to pack them in the car, and I was like, ‘Where’s the car?’” Shriver told ESPN. Instead, she found shattered glass where the vehicle had been parked.
Shriver had booked rooms at the hotel to shelter her housekeeper, family friends, and pets when the fire broke out. At the time, she was in Hawaii but returned to Los Angeles to join them after securing some important items from her Brentwood home.
The tennis analyst, who works with ESPN, had initially planned to travel to the Australian Open but prioritized supporting her family and community instead. Although her Brentwood home escaped fire damage, it remains without power or heating.
Expressing her frustration, Shriver told ESPN, “Now, my family’s a victim of a crime, too.” She added, “It’s really sad on so many levels that when people are at their lowest and in their most difficult times, people are doing things like this.”
In an interview with KTLA-TV, she emphasized how the combined impact of disasters weighs on the community.
“I feel for people who’ve lived through a double disaster, which is being impacted by these horrendous fires and also having a secondary trauma, like having a crime committed against your property,” Shriver explained.
“It’s not just about me,” she continued. “I want our community to feel safe again.”
The destructive fires in Los Angeles have spared no one, affecting individuals across all walks of life. Whether celebrity or ordinary resident, wealthy or struggling, progressive or conservative, no one is immune to their devastation.
The rampant looting and theft plaguing California have mirrored this indiscriminate destruction. Los Angeles residents face not only the natural disaster of wildfires but also the human disaster of unchecked criminal activity that has festered for years.