It’s a story that could only happen in 2020: someone stole Christmas before Thanksgiving even came.
Two hundred tricycles have been stolen from the San Francisco Firefighters Christmas Toy Facility. The good news is that the holiday spirit appears to be very much alive, even this year.
“Low and behold, all of the tricycles that we had that were donated previously from the Saint Francis Yacht Club were gone,” said Sally Casazza, the Chair of the San Francisco Firefighters Toy Drive. “Two hundred tricycles were gone.”
The chain on the storage unit had been cut and police are now looking into how the thieves got the storage yard’s back gate open, how they knew to go to that particular unit and why they left more expensive bikes behind. Police hope surveillance cameras will help, but for now the thieves have left the toy drive in a bad way.
“Put the plea out there to the public to fill our need for tricycles,” said Casazzza. “People are pretty generous and they jump in when the need is so big.”
As if on cue, Casazza got a call from a San Jose woman who’d heard about the holiday heist.
“I’m going to send a couple Radio Flyer bicycles to the fire department so the kids can have a Christmas – you’re wonderful,” said Maryann Trejo of San Jose.
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There are many questions about how the thieves got into the back of the yard and how they got the bikes out, but one thing is sure. The toy drive starts Monday in a COVID kind of way.
Casazza said that every San Francisco fire station has a barrel, but businesses in the city will not have barrels due to the pandemic.
To register go to https://www.sffirefighterstoys.org/.
