CINCINNATI — St. Vincent de Paul officials said they woke up Thursday to find three of their box trucks damaged and burglarized at their Este Avenue location, leading to 60 missed donation pick-ups.
Kaytlynd Lainhart, vice president of external affairs, said the trucks move everything that allows them to charitably serve the community.
"Those donation boxes are actually the feet of our organization," Lainhart said. "They travel around to our donors' homes picking up things to fulfill our mission. Really, neighbors helping neighbors."
The alleged burglary shocked patrons like John Moore.
"It's terrible," Moore said. "I don't know why anyone is breaking into a place that's giving stuff away."
Brian Garry, who's a frequent donor at St. Vincent de Paul, called on others to use the incident as motivation for donations.
"They are an incredible organization — beds, furniture, anything a person needs to transition, in my experience, from homelessness to having a home," Garry said.
Lainhart said the burglary was wholly unnecessary as well, given the program annually awards vouchers worth $800,000 to people in need.
"You don't need to steal from St. Vincent de Paul," she said. "We're here to help our neighbors."
Lainhart called for a donation boost to help them deal with the cost of repairing the vehicles and replacing the equipment, and she said the organization would likely soon incur costs related to increasing safety and security at the Este location.
"Our team is looking at safety protocols at this point," she said. "We really want to see how we can prevent that from happening and make our facilities safe and secure."
Donations can be directed to the SVDP website, and any purchase made at the region's thrift stores would help them recoup costs, Lainhart said.
St. Vincent de Paul hoped to have the damaged trucks back in service Friday but said they would announce on social media if that wasn't possible.
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