A burglar has targeted an Atlanta, Georgia, charity for the second year, and police are hoping to identify and catch the individual.
The burglar apparently stole toys from the Empty Stocking Fund that serves disadvantaged children, 11 Alive reported Thursday.
The charity’s website reads:
Through your generosity, our relationships with wholesale distributors and in-kind donations from trusted corporations, ESF provides toys and gifts during the holiday season and other core essential supplies throughout the year to support positive social and emotional development and academic success.
The organization keeps stock inside an Atlanta warehouse that features a security system, but the individual knew the territory, according to executive director Manda Hunt.
She alleged the person got in five times during one weekend in November after breaking a window. Surveillance footage shows the individual with a cart full of items, prompting Hunt to call 911.
In the clip, the man moved the cart through a door:
Last year, someone broke into the warehouse after smashing a cinderblock wall with a sledgehammer, and Hunt believes it is the same person.
Video from December 2021 shows the gaping hole in the wall (footage starts at 1:55):
“We’re not going to let one Grinch steal Christmas, but it is and it has proven very difficult to keep him out of our building,” Hunt told the Atlanta Journal-Constitution.
Last year, the suspect apparently posed as a volunteer with the organization and used that position to swipe toy orders.
“We thought he was distributing them to families, but he was just taking them himself,” Hunt told the newspaper, adding that was difficult for everyone to swallow.
The stolen items have proven costly. In addition, the group was forced to use some donated funds to pay a nighttime security officer.
Hunt said, “All in this year alone, we’re probably at $10,000 lost. And those are kids we could’ve served.”
When it comes to the crime wave sweeping across President Joe Biden’s (D) America, citizens are “more likely now than at any time over the past five decades to say there is more crime in their local area than there was a year ago,” Gallup reported in October.
“The 56% of U.S. adults who report an increase in crime where they live marks a five-percentage-point uptick since last year and is the highest by two points in Gallup’s trend dating back to 1972,” the article read.
Meanwhile, social media users were disappointed after reading about what happened to the charity. One person wrote, “That is so pitiful.”