For Valley Woman, Trust Was Stolen Along With Son’s Coat

My husband and I have tried to teach our children to be kind and helpful, to respect all :people and to never, ever take anything that does not belong to them.

My eight-year-old son, Brandon, has also learned one of life’s sad lessons: that not all people follow these rules.

Our children, like most, enjoy wearing “cool” clothing. Being fashionable is fine, but we do have a rule in our house. If you want a high-ticket item, you have to help earn it.

Such is the case with heavy-duty winter coats. Our kids get to pick out a new coat every other year. This happened to be Brandon’s year, and his heart’s desire was a Starter brand Forty-Niners jacket. He did his chores and was patient enough to wait the two years to get it because, as every eight-year-old boy knows, a Forty-Niners jacket is “awesome.”

Brandon proudly wore his new coat to school at East Farms Elementary every day for a week. He was reminded to keep an eye on it, but one day when he went to leave at the end of the day, Brandon’s new Forty-Niners coat was not in the closet where he had hung it. His heart must have fallen to his little toes!

He immediately told his teacher, Mrs. Joanie Wiecks, and she did a quick check around the room and of each classmate. No coat. Brandon’s best friend’s mom was there, and she also helped look. No coat, just a heartbroken boy.

I contacted the school the next day. We checked the lost and found almost every day and put a notice in the school newsletter, hoping that parents would pay special attention in case a child happened to come home from school with a new Forty-Niners jacket.

After a very extensive three-week search, we were forced to dip into our Christmas savings in order to get Brandon another coat for the winter. The snow had fallen, and we couldn’t wait any longer.

Our Christmas will be a little “lighter” this year, but we’ll be fine, and Brandon will be warm.

We would like to thank everyone at East Farms for their kind, caring attitude, especially janitor Bonnie Dupree who helped me do a room-to-room search on the evening that Brandon’s coat was taken.

To the selfish, uncaring and thoughtless person who took the coat, I would like to say that you not only broke the heart of a little boy who worked and waited a long time to get his new coat, but you also weakened his trust in all people.

I can only hope that you needed Brandon’s coat more than he did.

xxxx

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