A mother named Whitney Gilderbloom took to her Facebook to share what happened to her son Cooper, who plays football and goes to school in Knoxville, Iowa.
She explained that someone stole his phone while he was at practice on December 18, 2025, and then threw it into a trash can in the locker room after destroying it completely.
The damage was bad, with the phone pulled apart. In fact, the wires ripped out from the inside, and she made clear this was no accident but something done on purpose.
She wrote a status on Facebook asking if anyone knew anything about the phone being taken and damaged because she had already talked to the police and wanted help from the community.
Then, in a follow-up message, she gave more details about finding the phone at the bottom of that locker room trash can in such terrible shape.
Nobody had come forward with information, even though people must have seen something, and she urged other parents to speak with their children and encourage them to tell the truth.
She wrote:
Parents, talk to your kids. Have them do the right thing. This wasn’t an accident. This was completely intentional and criminal.
Whitney Gilderbloom
Whitney also brought up another incident from the week before, when Cooper’s sweatshirt disappeared and ended up hidden up in the ceiling tiles, forcing him to go home in some dirty shirt he found instead.
You May Read: Hillcrest HS Coach Tyler Armistad Charged With Inappropriate Student Contact as School Sends Parent Alert!
She described these actions as part of ongoing bullying that has affected the school for a long time.
Whitney boldly said that bullying is never acceptable, no matter what. Even though she admitted her own child is not perfect and nobody’s kid is, she said this kind of behavior crosses the line into something criminal and wrong.
Whitney pleaded with everyone who might know details to come forward and do the right thing, saying if you see or hear something, you should say something.
