Thieves take everything from Abbotsford family over holidays
Posted December 31, 2010 11:37 am.
This article is more than 5 years old.
ABBOTSFORD (NEWS1130) – An Abbotsford family is hoping for better luck in the new year. The same family who says it was attacked by their landlord earlier this year has now had the entire contents of their home stolen.
After moving into a new home, the family had been celebrating Christmas. They returned on Boxing Day to find all of their food had been stolen and in true Grinch-style, even half a carton of eggnog was missing. The thieves took their entire DVD collection, cash, and grocery gift certificates.
Abbotsford Police Constable Ian MacDonald says “We received the report of the break-in on Boxing Day .. Family had been through some trauma back in October when they had unfortunately suffered some wrath as a result of a dispute that emanated from a landlord-tenant issue, where the landlord did some damage to the property and gave the family a good scare”
He says there was evidence of forced entry and did neighbourhood canvasses. Police do not believe the landlord had any specific information about where they had moved.
Brian Tjepkema says its been a rough year as he’s been diagnosed with a rare blood disorder. Most of his wife’s belongings are now gone. “Most of my wife’s pants, all of her jewellery from her jewellery box, including her wedding ring, which we were getting re-sized. We had a box of old children’s books that she read when she was a kid. A lot of them had inscriptions from her grandparents who are now deceased. Half of that box is gone.”
Tjepkema tells us his children, aged three and five, are terrified and a lot of their toys are also missing. “We told them that it was probably just somebody who wasn’t having a very good Christmas, saw we had a lot of stuff, and wanted to make their Christmas better. My daughter’s first reaction to that was ‘Why didn’t he ask? I would have given him my toys.'”
Sayaka Nelson has joined the campaign “Operation Fight the Grinch.” She explains, “We are hoping to collect donations of food items, gift certificates for groceries [and] DVDs so that the kids can have a bit of normalcy back in their lives.”
A TD bank account number has been set up for the family. If you’d like to help, you can donate to:
TD Bank Account – 1156579821
For more information, you can contact: fightthegrinch@gmail.com
