Charity donation box worth $1,200 stolen in Arlington Heights

Thieves made off with a 600-pound deposit box that accepts donations of toys, clothes and shoes for charity in Arlington Heights last week, police said.

Steve Amella, who works on behalf of the group Kids Without Cancer, said the large metal boxes cost around $1,200 to buy but would only go for about $25 if someone was to sell it for scrap, leading him to suspect that the crime was done by people who seek to repaint the boxes, drop them off somewhere else and profit off donations.

"There are people who abuse this industry," Amella said. "Companies that are not even nonprofit will place their stolen boxes in the community at night."

Amella said Kids Without Cancer has had six of their donation boxes stolen in a similar manner since they began putting boxes out in the Chicago area last summer.

"This is a major thing that people don't know about," Amella said. "They have no conscience."

Kids Without Cancer works with businesses and the community to place their boxes, Amella said.

George Louckes, owner Burger Baron in Arlington Heights, said he gave the group permission to put the box near his restaurant at 132 E. Golf Road.

Police said the thieves stole the charity box sometime after 8 p.m. on May 14 and 9 a.m. May 15.

Louckes said the restaurant has surveillance cameras but none point to the area where the box was located.

Amella, who lives in Niles, met with Arlington Heights police and other business owners in the International Plaza Shopping Center to see if any of them had cameras that might have recorded the crime.

Arlington Heights Police Sgt. Chuck Buczynski said they do not have currently any suspects and are still working on tracking down who stole the donation box.

Kids Without Cancer donates money to pediatric cancer research. Amella said everyone involved has had a child with cancer.

"When you're a small nonprofit trying to give your money away for something good, it hurts," Amella said. "To us it is more than just about a box - to us it is personal. It is about a 4-year-old who is losing their life."

According to its required financial reporting, Detroit-based Kids Without Cancer donated $50,000 in grants to Children's Hospital of Michigan in 2014.

Amella is the vice president of marketing and field operations for Verox Connect LLC, a Melrose Park-based company that works for Kids Without Cancer. Amella said the company consists of a small staff, a truck and part of a warehouse. Verox Connect LLC is itself owned by a textile company called Matrix Inc., which donates the service to Kids Without Cancer as a charitable act, Amella said.

Amella said people can find more information about the work the charity does at kidswithoutcancer.us.