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Town rallies after presents stolen from charity

Posted at 7:24 AM, Dec 20, 2015
and last updated 2015-12-20 09:25:11-05

More than 150 toys that were going to be given to kids who might not otherwise get presents this holiday season were stolen from a senior center in Weld County.

Volunteers at the After Glow Senior Center in Lochbuie say the toys disappeared just one week before their annual toy giveaway.

“It’s just mind boggling,” said Dee Nelson, who works at the center, “I have tried everything trying to figure out how they got in, I don’t know."

Nelson wasn’t sure whether they would be able to continue with the giveaway - until word got out about what happened.

“There are wonderful, wonderful people we found out,” she said.

People from around the community, and as far as Greeley, donated gifts and money to replace the missing gifts.

Donors provided enough for 200 children to get more than one present during the giveaway on Saturday afternoon.

“Everybody just swarmed around to help us,” said Nelson.

Nelson filed a police report, but is happy that whoever took off with the gifts couldn’t steal Christmas from the children.

“They tried,” she said. “But they weren’t successful, they couldn’t do it"

The center even had gifts to spare.

They plan to give the extra gifts away to Toys for Tots.