"Pure evil": Thief steals donation box for paralyzed girl from Minneapolis grocery store
MINNEAPOLIS – A Minnesota family is in desperate need after donations for their paralyzed daughter were brazenly stolen.
Natalie Bolanos, 15, suffered two strokes last summer and was in a coma for a month.
When she came home in December, the owner of the Minneapolis grocery store she loved to shop at with her mother, Lizbeth, paid for the family's Christmas dinner.
Daniel Hernandez, who owns Colonial Market, then put donation boxes at the registers to help raise money for an electric wheelchair for Bolanos.
"People were giving with all their heart, man," Hernandez said.
Lizbeth says her daughter can only move her left hand, so an electric wheelchair would allow her to move around herself.
"We just want to make her happy," Lizbeth said.
But Sunday morning, there was a burglary. Surveillance video shows the thief breaking through two glass doors to get into the store, then going straight for the donation boxes.
He's in and out in about 10 seconds, making off with more than $1,000.
"Pure evil," Hernandez said. "The first thing I thought was pure evil."
He had just called Lizbeth this weekend excited about the amount of money raised and was going to give her the money Sunday.
"He gave me the bad news that someone broke in," Lizbeth said. "I was crying when I saw the video that he put."
The wheelchair Bolanos is currently using belongs to the hospital and will need to be returned.
While Lizbeth is out of work, she says she's been struggling, relying on help from the community.
"I will do whatever it takes, and I will," Hernandez said. "Whether it's in the next couple weeks or couple months, but I will get that wheelchair for her, because...she really needs it."
One thing the Bolanos family won't do is give up.
"[Natalie's] been tough since she was little, since she was born," Lizbeth said.
The grocery store has been victimized before. In August, a shoplifter smashed out the windows, causing thousands of dollars in damage.
Hernandez says crime like this is the new normal for his neighborhood.