Thief steals filmmaker's irreplaceable hard drives containing documentary

DALLAS - A thief may not know exactly what he stole when he broke into a young filmmaker's car in Dallas.

While grabbing some clothes, a laptop and other electronics, the thief also took a hard drive containing a documentary of a dying young man.

Austin filmmaker Will Bakke's car was burglarized last Friday around 4 a.m. on Park Lane near Midway Road in Northwest Dallas. Some clothes, a laptop, hard drives and back-ups of the hard drives were all stolen.

It’s the hard drives that matter the most to Bakke because they contain a documentary storyline of a Texas A&M student's inspirational story called "Kyle goes to Prom."

"We were hoping to use this movie in order to get awareness about Duchenne Muscular dystrophy out there,” the filmmaker said.

Bakke says young men suffering from the genetic disorder typically don't survive longer than their early 20's.

"There's five Texas A&M seniors that surprised Kyle last May with the road trip of a lifetime,” he said.

The road trip is the focus of the film. Without the hard drives, all that's left of the brotherly journey is memories.

"The biggest thing is that Kyle just presents so much hope to other boys that are his age,” Bakke said. “Not to just give up, but to experience life, make friends, like he did and go on big adventures like this."

The only lead that Dallas police have is a still picture from a surveillance camera showing a man with bright red shoes and a red beanie cap.

"We're pretty much doing everything that we can and just praying,” Bakke said. “Like all these guys in the movie are Christians, I'm a believer. We kind of feel like God has a bigger plan for this."

Bakke is offering a $5,000 reward and has a message for the man who stole the items.

"We're not looking to press charges, not looking to make money off of him,” he said. “We just want our story back."

Bakke says the goal of the film was to build awareness of DMD and raise money to help find a cure.

Anyone with leads or other help is urged to contact Will Bakke and Michael B. Alen directly via will@riotstudios.com or by calling (214) 202-0955