An Abbotsford charity is grappling with a holiday surprise it says will put a major dent in its work helping women and children escape violence in Mexico.
As a part of its work, Casa de Luz Ministries collects donations in Canada and ships as many as five full semi-trailers of items to Mexico to support vulnerable families.
Packed into those trucks are everything from food to commercial cooking equipment to clothing and construction supplies.
But early Saturday morning, someone stole a critical tool it uses for that work: a large trailer the ministry uses to round up those donations.
“Without the trailer, it just costs us more money,” he said.
“We have a donation up in Kamloops of four skids of brand-new clothes we were going to send down there, and now we can’t go get it — so we are going to have to get a commercial carrier to bring it down.”
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The thieves struck at a time when B.C. charities are already struggling.
With postal workers on strike, donations through the mail are frozen and Stephens estimated the charity is down about 37 per cent in fundraising over 2023.
“We’re trying to pivot and raise that money … and then you see someone come at take something that doesn’t belong to them,” he said.
Security cameras captured the thieves in action. The video shows two people in a grey Ford pickup truck pull up to the trailer where it was parked, hook it up, and drive away.
The thieves were able to smash a hitch lock off the trailer before stealing it.
Abbotsford police are investigating, and say they’re working to determine whether the truck used in the theft was also stolen.
APD spokesperson Sgt. Paul Walker said the theft may have been a crime of opportunity.
“They probably saw that as a moment of opportunity in an industrial area that’s not staffed at that time of night and took advantage of that,” he said.
Stephens estimated the trailer is worth between $15,000 and $20,000, money he now fears will come out of the charity’s bottom line.
“If you equate that to meals, for our kids down there and our families, would be 6,000 to 7,000 meals we are going to have to figure out how to replace,” he said.
“Every time you take something that doesn’t belong to you, you’re hurting someone. this one happens to be hurting in a big way.”
Stephens added that the trailer has remnants of the word “freestyle” on the back, something he hopes will help someone identify it and report it to police.
In the meantime, the charity is hoping donors will step up to help it meet the needs of their clients.
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