Sarah Smith Family - Cherryville NC
The Smith family's home was burglarized and completely ransacked on Monday. Tonight they returned home for the first time, after the Police finished and they were able to clean it all up again.
Sarah Blake’s story from WBTV News tonight is here: http://tinyurl.com/SBCherryvilleHome
WBTV's Molly Grantham's Facebook post about the Smith family is here http://tinyurl.com/CherryvilleHome
Warren & Sarah's sons are Riley (17), Reagan (14) & Scotty (9). Warren lost his job as Sales Manager and while job hunting the family had to make some sacrifices.
Sarah tells their story: "Here is what is breaking our hearts as parents; not only was all sense of safety taken from us to the point that we want to never live in our home again but our sons had saved THEIR money and were buying each other gifts. Reagan bought Riley a special face mask for winter with the American flag on and the robber unwrapped it and stole it. The burglars unwrapped the gifts Scotty had made from wood in our shop, they unwrapped their Christmas Eve jammies that I spent what little money we had on to carry the tradition out despite our circumstances. These thieves emptied EVERY bag and then loaded the bags up with our things and for several hours ran back and forth to their get away car which was parked behind our house, over the railroad track off another road. They turned our house upside down and got oldest son's rifle and opened our medicine boxes and threw pills all over our house. The tried to flip my mattress and ransacked everything. Every single drawer, our pantry, every box opened. They took our toaster oven and we found bag that they were filling when I interrupted them that had our sons deodorant in it. Who does this kind of thing?
Riley works for Auto Bell in Lincolnton. He got the job in June when he was wanting to play travel baseball and we couldn’t afford it. He has been promoted once in the past six months of employment there and even be given bonuses for his hard work. He paid for baseball and then started saving for college. He has worked four or five days a week plus gone to school five days a week 7:30-3, taken online college courses and been applying to colleges non-stop. He has been accepted to 17 schools and has over $300,000 to those schools in scholarships based on grades (merit) alone. He has applied to over 30 schools in hopes that someone will give him need based help and he will actually be able to attend a four year school. We are incredibly proud of his work ethic and strong character. His room was the worst scene we saw yesterday. Our hearts broke over and over as we tried walk thought it. His savings of $2500 was in a safe that the bought and they got every bit of it. The left the broken safe in our living room. They took the $200 Reagan had saved to buy a new iPad with, he got his first iPad when he had heart surgery almost five years ago as a gift during his recovery. He wanted to replace it badly. And Scotty had $45 in his wallet that they took. They took the pennies from his piggy bank. We found out today that the insurance will only replace $200 of that cash stoeln. We also found out that the jewelry we lost isn’t covered int he policy over $1200. My husbands parents are deceased. My mother in law died ion 2001 when she fell down the stairs carrying Riley. I was given some of her jewelry after she died. I also had my grandmother's pearls and my husband had his fathers watches and rings; his father died in 2014 and lived with us the last three years of his life. I was his main caregiver. We had set aside cufflinks for each of our son’s wedding days and tie pins for their graduations.
I recently stepped down from a full time volunteer position at our school because of my health and had planned to begin getting back into my photography. As my health improved I planned to begin a small photography business, Capture the Joy (my middle name is Joy) again and help us bring in some much needed income. They took my camera and all my lenses. I can’t even take pictures of our last Christmas with Riley before college. Sgt. Parker came today to get more serial numbers from the play station they stole (brand new that Riley bought with is money) and Xbox system they stole.
My children will never be the same again. I don’t feel like our home will ever feel like OUR home again. My husband and I have wept more in the last 24 hours and been so broken for our boys and the fear they have to face. We still have a roof over our heads and countless things to be thankful for. We have seen miraculous gifts like the Bible Believers Club at our school buying us a second night in hotel because I am terrified to be in my home in daylight, let alone sleep there. We want to return to normal and honestly don’t know how we will but trust our faith will be what gets us through, it has thus far. God has provided all our needs."
Let us help the Smith-family, as you are able, and make this a Christmas they will never forget! If you have any ideas or questions email me, I'll gladly see how to help.
