Christmas event organizer determined to continue event despite storage unit burglary
AVONDALE, Ariz. - A West Valley organization is hoping to catch a real-life Grinch who stole thousands of dollars in donated items from a storage unit.
Altogether, approximately $7,500 worth of items were stolen from the Westside Recreational Program, items intended to brighten the holidays for roughly 450 kids.
A fundraiser taking place in the West Valley for local kids was designed to replace some of those items.
But not even 12 hours before, Judge Joe "Pep" Guzman found his storage unit in shambles.
"When I arrived this morning, this is how I found my lock," Pep said.
Inside his storage unit where bags of donated items for multiple Westside Recreational Program events was found empty.
Toys, clothes, blankets, plus thousands of dollars in supplies for a Cinco de Mayo fundraiser next May were all inside.
"Not only did we lose those items that we were preparing to use for our annual fundraiser golf tournament but we also lost items we were intending to use at our event on the 14th of December, so it was a double whammy," Guzman said.
Judge Pep is in disbelief that someone could do something like this, especially right before Christmas.
"That's a message we teach to our children; don't take things that don’t belong to you. And that's what has happened to us by an adult. He has taken things that don't belong to him, that belong to our community, to our kids," Guzman said.
Despite this selfish act, Judge Pep says the spirit of giving is still very alive for program leaders.
"Our nonprofit organization has been in existence for more than 50 years helping kids improve in the classroom and improve in recreational sports, and that mission is not going to end because of the incident this morning, in fact, it's going to strengthen our resolve to do more," he said.
Judge Pep says he is hopeful that the person who did this can be identified and the items can hopefully be given back before the event on December 14.
Luckily, there were a lot of donors at the fundraiser to help stop this Grinch from stealing Christmas.