Jacob Otten knew something was wrong as soon as he entered his office at Husky Stadium. The corner where he kept his 12 championship rings was empty.
"It sucked," Otten, UW football's third-year director of technology said Friday. "Just walking in, seeing where they were displayed in that back corner and all of a sudden looking and they weren't displayed there anymore, I was like that's not good at all."
Washington athletics was the victim of a theft this week, a UW athletics spokesperson told The Seattle Times on Friday afternoon.
"We can confirm that a theft occurred between September 4 and 5 on the athletic campus," the UW athletics spokesperson said. "The incident was promptly reported to authorities."
The University of Washington police department declined to release the police report of the incident, citing the case's active-investigation status for its refusal. A source close to the program told The Times multiple cameras, a bag and Otten's championship rings were among the stolen inventory.
"I can confirm there is an active investigation into a burglary in the UW athletics department," a university spokesperson told The Times. "We are currently following up on all leads and have no further information to share at this time."
Otten's rings told the stories of his 15-year career working in college football. His two oldest rings were from his alma mater, Cal Poly, and honored the Mustangs' Great West co-championship in 2011 and their 2012 Big Sky co-championship a season later.
He also had five rings from North Dakota State and two from Kansas State. His three most recent ones came from Washington — celebrating the 2022 Alamo Bowl, the 2023 Pac-12 Championship and the 2023 Sugar Bowl.
Otten said the rings have deeper sentimental meaning beyond any monetary value. They represent the personal sacrifices, the weekends spent at the stadium and the relationships he built at the programs he's worked for during his career, he said.
"Every year is unique," he said. "Every year is different. When I was at North Dakota State, those rings are national championship rings. You start in August and you're not done until January. You're sacrificing weekends and you're working seven days a week.
"So getting that ring at the end of the year and winning a championship, that's why you do it. You have it so in the summertime, you can have it displayed and people can come in and check it out and you can tell them stories about each ring, and tell them each story about each year and what we did that season."
Otten's most heartbroken about the theft of the earlier rings. Some of the newer ones are replaceable, but the rings from Cal Poly are more than a decade old and he doesn't know if he'll be able to find anyone that can make him a new one.
However, he's appreciated the outpouring of sympathy he's received from UW fans since he first posted on his social media accounts about the incident on Thursday. Otten also said if anyone sees them in a pawnshop or being sold somewhere, they have his name on them and he'd really appreciate it if they were returned.
"To see the community come together to help a Washington Husky," he said, "to help somebody that is a support staff member who is a low-on-the-totem-pole guy, but to see the support I've already gotten just from social media alone has been amazing."
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