GARDEN GROVE, Calif. - Thieves in Orange County stole $100,000 in toys and food donated to the poor, leaving an agency scrambling to recover just 24 days before Christmas.

Sgt. James Colgrove said crooks broke into an underground storage facility in Garden Grove over the weekend. They took an estimated 20,000 pounds of food and about $25,000 worth of toys that were donated to the United Labor Agency of Orange County.

Colgrove says the goods were being collected for homeless families and those whose breadwinners recently lost jobs.

“There are going to be a lot of homeless and underprivileged children and families who are going to go without,” Colgrove told The Orange County Register.

Colgrove told the California newspaper that detectives believe the heist happened between Friday and Monday morning. Employees were being interviewed to determine how someone could haul away the huge load without being noticed, the newspaper reported.

Source (article): MSNBC

Source (picture): THECHRISTMASGUIDE,

Just after midnight on Christmas morning, the majority of German troops engaged in World War I cease firing their guns and artillery and commence to sing Christmas carols. At certain points along the eastern and western fronts, the soldiers of Russia, France, and Britain even heard brass bands joining the Germans in their joyous singing.

At the first light of dawn, many of the German soldiers emerged from their trenches and approached the Allied lines across no-man’s-land, calling out “Merry Christmas” in their enemies’ native tongues. At first, the Allied soldiers feared it was a trick, but seeing the Germans unarmed they climbed out of their trenches and shook hands with the enemy soldiers. The men exchanged presents of cigarettes and plum puddings and sang carols and songs. There was even a documented case of soldiers from opposing sides playing a good-natured game of soccer.

The so-called Christmas Truce of 1914 came only five months after the outbreak of war in Europe and was one of the last examples of the outdated notion of chivalry between enemies in warfare. In 1915, the bloody conflict of World War I erupted in all its technological fury, and the concept of another Christmas Truce became unthinkable.

HISTORY.COM
Date: 2008-12-25