Who's stealing golf balls in Friendswood?

FRIENDSWOOD, TX (KTRK) -- Tom Imber has owned and operated the Championship Golf Center in Friendwood for more than a decade. To lose a few golf balls is to be expected, he says. To lose 2,000 in about 3 months.... unacceptable.

The balls seemed to vanish into a black hole recently, to the point his inventory is less than half what it had been.

"I've lost so many that it's starting to affect my business," he said, which means sometimes customers may have less than a full bucket of golf balls to hit.

Another barometer of the dwindling inventory: Imber says he would have had to make 3 trips out on the range to collect balls. These days, it's a one-time trip.

Imber's wife filed a report with the Friendswood Police Department, which was posted on its community email. In it, it noted that an officer saw a skunk taking some of the balls, but the report noted that the skunk was not responsible for all the vanishing golf balls.

"I think it's a two-legged skunk," Imber told us. "I think it's some kids who live around here, and if their parents see hundreds of golf balls in their garage, please bring them back. And if they want, i'll let their kids know what I think of what they did."

Imber estimates the loss has cost him about a thousand dollars to date. "We're a mom and pop business," he said. "And we can't afford for this to continue."