ATLANTA — For nearly a century, the Empty Stocking Fund has battled poverty in Georgia through its Christmas gift program for children in need. But in recent years, the nonprofit has had to wage another kind of fight.
Its southwest Atlanta warehouse has been targeted in a rash of break-ins by what authorities believe to be a serial bandit who has stolen thousands of dollars worth of toys. The capers have threatened the nonprofit’s mission to ensure every child, no matter their economic status, receives a gift that brings them joy during the holiday season.
“We’re not going to let one Grinch steal Christmas, but it is and it has proven very difficult to keep him out of our building,” said Manda Hunt, executive director for the nonprofit.
Hunt, who has led the Empty Stocking Fund since 2010, said the problems started in 2020 after moving to its 24,000 square-foot home in the Pittsburgh neighborhood. The nonprofit believes the man at some point last year gained access to the facility by posing as a volunteer. The break-ins started last holiday season and have accelerated this year.
The Empty Stocking Fund has been serving disadvantaged children in Atlanta and across Georgia since 1927. It distributes gifts to roughly 30,000 children each holiday season. It purchases its gifts wholesale using cash donations from the public. The nonprofit is sponsored in part by The Atlanta Journal-Constitution, which was a founding partner more than nine decades ago.
The nonprofit’s large warehouse is filled with rows of shelves stacked 15-feet high with toys and personal items as the Empty Stocking Fund pushes through what will ultimately be its busiest time of the season: 18 consecutive days of gift distribution, leading up to Christmas Eve. In between the shelves lie boxes filled with stocking stuffer kits containing scarves, small trinkets and personal grooming items. Christmas music rings through every corner of the storage area as volunteers busy themselves, pushing bright red shopping carts down the aisles.
Last year, a destructive, late-night break-in less than a week before Christmas nearly paralyzed the organization’s operation at its most critical time of year.
“We have on camera one person going, bringing a sledgehammer to the backside of our building and sledgehammering through a cinderblock wall a hole that was probably about 4 feet wide and 3 feet tall,” Hunt said.
The suspect then had free range of the warehouse, where dozens of pallets of new toys, games and gifts sat awaiting distribution to children and parents. The man made off with shopping carts filled with new, unopened toys.
“He just was able to basically take out packed orders that we were distributing to families,” she said.
Hunt said the building’s alarms were armed at the time of the break-in, but because the suspect went through a wall rather than a door or window, they did not sound. Video footage has helped identify some of the items taken. While Hunt estimates that thousands of dollars worth of toys and gifts were stolen, it is difficult to assign an exact price to the missing merchandise.
At one point last year, the thief posed as a volunteer and used that access to steal toy orders. It was “pretty heartbreaking” when the Empty Stocking Fund staff realized this part of the thief’s scheme, Hunt said.
“We thought he was distributing them to families, but he was just taking them himself,” Hunt said. “That was the hard part for all of us, because I feel like I probably looked at him and thanked him for coming and helping us do this.”
Last year’s thefts were just the beginning of the trouble. And as time has passed, the frequency of the crimes has grown worse. The nonprofit’s staff and management feel like they’ve been in a cat-and-mouse game with a thief who seems to have become more bold this year.
The nonprofit has added additional video surveillance cameras. But the thief has found other ways in. In one break-in, he climbed to the warehouse’s roof during a construction project.
”He came through the roof where there used to be a skylight,” Hunt said
A troubling element to Hunt is that not all of the break-ins happened at night.
On one weekend in November, the non-profit’s surveillance system caught the same man breaking into the warehouse five different times, over three days. That Sunday, Nov. 6, Atlanta police received an alarm call from the warehousewhere a window to the garage door had been smashed. Video footage caught images of the man inside, Hunt said. By the time police arrived, the burglar was gone, according to police records.
“We have lots of video of him just wheeling carts of stuff out of the warehouse,” she said.
At one point that weekend, the suspect came in through the 8x20-inch windows of the loading dock door, Hunt said. The nonprofit secured the door by putting pallets against it, but the person pushed his way through, she said. Now, metal sheets cover those windows, which darkens the warehouse.
The persistent break-ins have made those at the nonprofit feel frustrated and helpless, at times.
“We have secured every known entrance,” Hunt said. “We have an alarm system. We have cameras. Every time the alarm system was triggered, the police were called. But by the time they got here, he was out of the space or they saw no activity.”
The thefts have been costly to the Empty Stocking Fund in ways that go beyond the price of replacing stolen toys. The costs of the break-ins have started to add up. The nonprofit has had to repair damage to the building and has used some of its donated funds to pay for a security officer to monitor the warehouse at night. The thief has stolen at least two shopping carts, which cost about $300 each. It all means less money to buy toys for children.
The saga has made the nonprofit’s leadership wonder if it will have to explore other locations if the thievery continues. For now, they’ve moved parts of their Christmas holiday distribution work to a different location.
”All in this year alone, we’re probably at $10,000 lost,” she said. “And those are kids we could’ve served.”
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