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,

PHILLIPSBURG, N.J. (AP) — Police in New Jersey say a man stole stacks of newspapers and delivered them to unsuspecting customers for years.

Phillipsburg police say Michael Farrell was delivering copies of the Express-Times of Easton (Pa.) for the last three years. The problem was, police say he was stealing the papers from boxes.

Newspaper officials say the Lopatcong Township man worked in the past as a carrier for the paper. Customers assumed the 53-year-old still did. Some even wrote him a check every month. Subscriber Mike Markle of Phillipsburg, a town about 60 miles west of Newark, says he was satisfied with the service. He never had a problem getting his morning paper.

SOURCE: ASSOCIATED PRESS