UPDATE: Since I published this article, I personally spoke with the Salvation Army and this is what was said:
Lieutenant Sheila Gage told me the following in a phone conversation,
“Thank God, the community response to this event has been overwhelming. The Kiwanis’ Club called us right away and showed up the very next day with $1,000 in Target Gift cards.
City of Newburgh Police Chief, Mike Ferraira has been by our side all along, he sent out a press release on our behalf and the police stations throughout the entire community responded. People just walked in off the streets with donations. We can help so many more families than we originally had gifts to help.
Just this morning, a disabled mother called me because she had missed the deadline to file for Christmas help. I was able to tell her to bring her paperwork with her and c’mon down!
My heart is overflowing and my belief in Christmas miracles is renewed. If only the thief had realized that they didn’t have to steal from us, they only had to ask us for help.
Please thank everyone for us, from the bottom of our very grateful hearts. Merry Christmas.”
This was the original story:
The headline read, “The Grinch Stole Christmas from Salvation Army” but it wasn’t really the Grinch – it was a thief or thieves. Someone had to be watching the Salvation Army pretty closely to know that the After School Christmas Program was about to begin. The thief would have known that the receptionist would leave the door unlocked, be busy helping the families and their small children into the back of the building. This vulture saw an opportunity to strike and strike they did.
Calling the thief a Grinch is going too easy on this scoundrel. This low-life, uncaring dirtbag did the unthinkable. He didn’t just lift some gifts – He stole Christmas out from under sixty families. Families that were going to receive small gifts to give their children, food cards to buy dinner for their families and the thief robbed the joy from the folks who donated those gifts. He broke the hearts of the people who work and volunteer at the Salvation Army and who were working to provide some joy and hope this Christmas.
There is something far worse that this individual or individuals did. They reinforced the thought in some folks’ minds that evil triumphs over good and makes out like a bandit.
Evil won’t always win. These stolen gifts will not bring you joy even if you give them away. You will have the wrath of God to deal with and the Old Sicilian curse that the Italians who live around the corner told me just this morning. You are in their prayers, too – “May their hands fall off.”
It’s just a warning but these Sicilians take their traditions to heart. They told me that when a thief steals something at a sacred time of year, the thief is more susceptible to the curse than any other time of year and they reserve this curse for the worst of the worst.
Since the police and the bloodhounds have been cold on the trail of the thieves, I’m thinking if their hands do “fall off” then they will be a whole lot easier to find.
I just hope that somehow Christmas gets replaced at the Salvation Army in Newburgh. A whole lot of folks are praying for that.
Sources:
http://hudsonvalley.ynn.com/content/all_news/527494/presents-stolen-from-local-salvation-army/
http://www.wcax.com/Global/story.asp?S=13718316
