Update: That Salvation Army worker who claimed he was robbed at knife point by four guys who raided his kettle? Yeah, he was never robbed at all. He stole the money and concocted the story to cover his tracks.
Police now say that Kevin J. Weitzel lifted about $235. He’s now charged with theft and falsification, according to 19 Action News.
And thus we have an answer to the question: Who is worse than a guy that robs a Salvation Army worker? The Salvation Army worker who steals the dough himself and then says he got robbed. — Grzegorek
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The drumbeat of end times. The crumbling of western civilization. The decay of decency. Call it what you want, but this story out of North Canton just gives the apocalypse-inclined among us further ammo that the things are off in a bad way. This is just plain mean.
The AP reports that four guys in North Canton robbed a Salvation Army bell-ringer outside of local Kmart. They drew a knife on the poor guy and demanded he hand over the red kettle people dump their change in as they’re walking in and out of the store. Yeah, not just one cracked-out guy — four guys. One two three four human beings actually brainstormed this scheme. Yeah yeah, there’s a recession on and all, but come on, you need some extra change for beer money so you go after the bell-ringer?
North Canton police say they don’t know how much donated money was in the kettle when it was taken Saturday evening.
Police Sgt. Frank Kemp tells WJW-TV the four men, all wearing dark clothing and hoodies, threatened to use the knife. Kemp says the bell-ringer followed the Salvation Army’s standard procedure in such cases and did not put up a struggle. The robbers took off on foot.
Police are asking for tips to help find them
This article appears in Jan 18-24, 2012.
Telling us that the Army’s SOP is to give up the loot just made it open season on bell ringers, no?
The Salvation Army is a great and historic organization. The number of people who have been helped by them, and saved by them is beyond numbers. The mere presence of a Red Kettle and a soldier ringing the bell makes me happy that there is one thing about Christmas shopping which is not insane. Great things which help and give hope are very important now as we slip farther down the Wall-Mart and retail giant’s grasp. So by the balls do the retail giants have us, that they think you are un-American if you do not help them during their sacred peek season..What used to be Christmas Holidays has deteriated into a feeding frenzy of shoppers and retail giants with an endless parade of products which we need. Do people understand that the plastic and electronic junk which we have such a need for is a bunch of manufactured bull shit. It has become so easy to push worthless junk onto shoppers at Christmas, that they pull out all of the crap of Christmas pasts to see if the junk will sell when people get really desperate to be a good American and buy people worthless crap.
All this goes on while the truth of The Salvation Army continues to share the real spirit of Christmas: To forgive one another; to help the needy; to give and receive the only true value which still holds on.
The Salvation Army has Red Kettles which can be run on your social media..and you don’t have to worry about being robbed at knife point. Please note that this which happened in Canton is a very isolated case and is not to be seen as reason to not give to The Salvation Army, but as just another reason to give.
This is why I hate 80% of people. One guy just trying to do some good, while four other guys have to come along and crap all over it. I am the 20% (optimistic percentage).