WISCASSET, Maine — Pastor Wally Staples was shopping for toys Friday afternoon with his wife, Sharon, when he got a call that he said “blew our minds.”
Back at the Wiscasset Church of the Nazarene, while volunteers worked in the basement packing Christmas boxes of food to give to families in need, someone had walked into the sanctuary and stolen two large bags of toys from among the hundreds waiting to be given to area children.
“They took the toys and made a run for it,” Staples, 68, said Tuesday. “And the sad part is we would have given them the toys, had they said something. It doesn’t make any sense.”
For the 13th consecutive Christmas, Staples, his wife and a group of volunteers have collected children’s names and ages, then worked with various organizations throughout Maine to provide toys, books and games for local boys and girls to find under their tree.
This year, parents, guardians and grandparents could choose four or five toys for each child from among the hundreds of Barbie dolls, puzzles, race cars and Play-Doh that fill the pews. One table offers books about Superman and SpongeBob SquarePants. They can take as many as they want, the pastor said. And Sharon Staples, 71, knit or crocheted 500 pairs of mittens to make sure all fingers, little and big, stay warm.
There’s even a box of food for each family’s Christmas dinner.
But early Friday afternoon, someone bypassed the rules and helped themselves. Staples said the volunteers working downstairs thought they heard the door open and shut but assumed it was other volunteers and didn’t give it a thought.
Saddened and disappointed, Wally Staples said Tuesday police continue to investigate the theft, but he’s not focusing on prosecuting the perpetrators. He’d prefer to have them make it right with the church.
“If there’s one point I’m trying to make, it’s that these didn’t have to be stolen,” he said. “They could have gone through the proper channels, and the toys would have been given to them. We’re hoping they will come back and say, ‘Hey, look, I did it, and I’m sorry.’ We’re not going to prosecute. It’s Christmastime. We would just like to have them fess up and say, ‘I realize I was wrong. My kids don’t need to have stolen toys.’”
Regardless, generosity and doing well unto others ruled the day Tuesday. By 2 p.m., toys for more than 400 children already went out the door under the watchful eyes of Wally and Sharon Staples and their daughter, Beth Grasser.
As moms and dads pulled into the Gardiner Road parking lot Tuesday afternoon to pick out gifts, Staples was on the phone confirming two more carloads of toys were on the way.
Crystal Stump, 43, a church member and volunteer, picked out toys for three of her children as well as three grandchildren.
“It literally made Christmas,” Stump said Tuesday.