'I Was Devastated': Thief Targets Nonprofit Helping People Out Of Life Of Crime
PLACERVILLE (CBS13) - A thief may have bitten the hand that could've fed them when they targeted a nonprofit that actually helps people get out of a life of crime.
New Beginnings Gold Country ministry in Placerville is devastated after someone stole their recently purchased 2002 Ford Dually. The ministry had just invested more than $11,000 into the truck, hoping it would help them generate income by towing unwanted/junk vehicles.
"I was devastated. I was really devastated," said General Manager and Director Emily Burns. "It's very discouraging but our biggest hope is that this person realizes that there's a different way to live life."
Founder and Director Randy Haskins is less worried about the stolen truck than he is about the person who stole it.
"It's the same type of people that we're trying to help, that are actually hurting us as well," Haskins told CBS13.
Haskins says it's actually the third vehicle either broken into or stolen over the last year and a half.
"It just knocks the wind out of you, and where's the next month's payment going to come from and what are we going to do from here?" said Haskins.
Burns has been down the wrong road herself but turned her life around when she found New Beginnings.
"It was a cycle. I was out for a few months and I'd go back in, and I just lived expecting to get arrested any minute," said Burns.
It costs the nonprofit $7,700 a month to run its men's and women's homes. They're hoping the person who stole from them will consider them an ally and not one to target.
"I would tell him he doesn't have to live like this. There's another way, and I would say to him maybe he should get into one of our beds before he gets into a jail bed," said Haskins.
"There's just a better way to live life without living on the edge, worried about when you're going to get busted again," said Burns.
New Beginnings is raising money online in hopes to purchase a replacement truck.
