Posted on 12/13/2009 8:25:33 AM PST by pillut48
CHARLOTTE, N.C. -- Police in Charlotte said 13 Salvation Army donation kettles were stolen at gunpoint late Friday night.
Police said two armed men covering their faces entered the business at 4300 Stuart Andrew Blvd. just after 10 p.m.
Two employees were held at gunpoint while the property was taken, police said.
Jim Price, of the Salvation Army, said the kettles held an estimated total of $4,000.
(Excerpt) Read more at wxii12.com ...
Stealing from charities during the Christmas holidays is about the sorriest thing I've heard in a long time (barring all the criminal activity in DC and Congress)!
Call me stupid, but I just can’t bring myself to stuff cash into a Salvation Army bucket even with the locks on them.
I keep seeing visions of people opening these kettles and skimming cash off because I KNOW the Salvation Army would be loath to set up strong security such as a Casino would when handling so much cash.
I worked a kettle in front of our local Walmart on Friday and again yesterday. I’ll be working it again next Saturday. That ‘take’ seems somewhat low for 13 kettles. We have two kettles on location in town both Fridays and Saturdays. The total take for Friday for both kettles was around $900. And we’re a small town, nowhere near the size of Charlotte, NC. I wonder if the workers had already cleared/locked up some of the proceeds before the crooks arrived...
OK, you're stupid. Just kidding. My Kiwanis club works the kettles in my town. We do it as a volunteer service and have for years. 70% of the funds received winds up back in our community. As president of our club, I can assure you that if someone was found to be 'skimming' from the receipts, they'd be prosecuted to the fullest extent.
Perhaps you live in a fairly high crime area. Don't assign your own area's problems on the rest of America.
Or a few were in on the robbery.
Not you, of course. There are people with good souls and then there's others with no souls.
I toss spare change and sometimes even a buck or two into the SA or Shriners kettles if I happen to be walking by, but it’s not something that I really give much thought to. I do give directly to the SA (and other groups) either by mailing them a check, or on-line donations, which I will assume is relatively secure.
Mark
Possible, of course, but I'd hope not. As someone else posted here, that would be lower than snake sh!t. I'm not familiar with how the Salvation Army assigns its bell ringers other than my local Kiwanis club having the honor for years, but I'd think they'd have policies and procedures in place.
Thanks, both of you, for your generous support. Your donations are very kind and help many. And, let’s face it, this is where generosity should come from; not from the government. As I said upthread, I have one more scheduled event next Saturday, at which I’ll drop my $10 bill. I do that every year.
This year, one of our locations is in the vestibule of a grocery store, so the fellows working it will be protected from the weather. Our Walmart location is outside in front of the store, and here in Northern Illinois it gets mighty cold and Windy. But it’s worth the effort.
Again, thanks!
I know what you mean. I make my yearly donation to charity to the SA around Christmas. I’m not comfortable with puting that kind of temptation in front of someone with a cash donation, so I give a USPS money order signed “Santa Clause.” Temptation is removed and anonimity is preserved.
You’re welcome! I’d gladly empty my wallet for charity and to help others—but I draw the line at the GOVERNMENT emptying my wallet for the ‘charities’ THEY choose (usually their OWN pockets)!
i feel the same way. i try to shop at stores that support
salvation army, like nordstrom’s, or my kroger grocery.
i try to do as little business at target as possible.
I was at a store last night at closing time and a Salvation Army short bus pulled up and collected the kettle and workers.
Why does the SA use such retrobates as bell ringers? Most of the thefts I’ll bet are inside jobs.
How sad. We try to shop stores that let the bell ringers collect. But we send our Christmas donation check straight to SA for just this reason.
The govt. does what the thieves did on a massive scale. Money (in the form of taxes) is confiscated from working people, thereby limiting their ability to contribute to truly worthy causes. The Salvation Army, unlike the govt., has very low overhead.
“
Police said two armed men covering their faces entered the business
at 4300 Stuart Andrew Blvd. just after 10 p.m.
Two employees were held at gunpoint while the property was taken,
police said.
“
I hope that if these two degenerates are captured...the judge sentences
them to some sort of “creative sentencing”.
Like 1 year and a day in jail (plus a few embellishments).
I suspect that if they are stupid enough to respond to the usual
“What are you in for?” question with “I stole from the Salvation Army
at Christmas time”...
they will likely get some real justice from some of the inmates.
Stealing from The Salvation Army at Christmas? I suspect that’s just
one notch up from child molestors (and they sometimes just get KILLED
in prison).
But if they survive the jail time; their probation should include
a requirement that they sit in at some Salvation Army training classes.
And maybe ring the bell for a couple of seasons (under the supervision
of a (discretely) armed probabion officer.
Thanks for your response.
The key to your statement is “if someone was found to be skimming from the receipts”...
What about those “not found”.....?
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