The Salvation Army says two times in one week, someone has stolen from the non-profit.

The organization says one of its vans had a window broken and a laptop plus two red kettles were stolen Wednesday night.

The non-profit says its worried the kettles will be used to make more money by those who stole it.

In addition, catalytic converters were stolen from the box truck that’s used for its thrift store.

The Salvation Army says the stealing needs to stop and if someone needs help, all they need to do is ask and agencies will do their best to help.

You can read more with a press release from The Salvation Army below…

Yesterday evening, someone broke out the windows of one of vans, stole a laptop and two empty red kettles. The staff member had been on their way home from picking up toys from our Angel Trees and made a stop at a local place of business when the incident happened. We are concerned the stolen red kettles will be used in an unauthorized manner to collect funds for someone not legitimately representing The Salvation Army. If anyone suspects a kettle at an unusual place, we ask them to report it to The Salvation Army and their local police department.

In addition, our box truck we use for food pick ups had both of its catalytic converters stolen. At times, it is also used for our Thrift Store. This is the second time in less than a year that someone has stolen our catalytic converters.

Having our truck out of service creates a logistical and a financial issue as the truck is crucial for our everyday needs. This will incur an extra financial burden to an already tight budget.

Currently, we are at 50% of our Red Kettle goal of $875,000 and having to incur this cost is one more challenge we must navigate in an already difficult year.

When someone steals from the Salvation Army they are also stealing from our community, the recipients of our services and the hard-working donors who provide the financial resources to operate our programs. The stealing from The Salvation Army and the other nonprofits needs to end. If someone needs help all they have to do is, ask any of our agencies and we will do the best we can to meet their needs.

If anyone has information, please contact us at: 417-862-5509, ext 103 and ask for Steve Robeson