[UPDATE Friday] Thieves Break in and Steal $3000 Stash of Quarters From Students at Small School
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We at Casterlin School are sick. Not the kind of sick that can be cured at the doctor’s office or with some chicken soup.
The parents and communities of Alderpoint, Blocksburg, and Kettenpom areas work TIRELESSLY to raise enough money to support the school, providing enrichment classes, field trips, materials, and the third teacher. Money is tight, and everyone’s hard work and energy in putting on events, as well as those who support our events, are always appreciated.
When we came to school on Monday, we noticed some things weren’t quite right: the gate had been opened during the weekend, a lock was missing, the “haunted house” doors were ajar, someone had attempted to open the janitor’s closet, other outbuildings had been either broken open or the attempt was made.
Then, the bus driver parked the bus and got in the van to continue her route, and all the gas had been siphoned from it. She barely had enough fumes to get to Alderpoint, where a family member helped her. Something was very wrong, the van had been full of fuel on Thursday.
Then we checked the Friends of Casterlin School (FOCS) storage container, and the lock was broken. A very successful “Quarter Craze” was held at the school recently, organized by FOCS and run completely by parent volunteers. After the event, students helped count and roll $3,000 in quarters. It was such a success that there was talk about having another Quarter Craze event in the upcoming months. With our school being more than an hour away from any bank, the decision was made to keep the quarters on hand – it would be easier that way. The quarters were stored, innocently enough, in buckets in the container.
When we looked, the one missing item from the shed was the quarters. We have heard of many people spending rolls of quarters at some local stores, and we have heard ideas about who has stolen the money.
The theft is a theft of not only money, but also of dreams, plans, and hopes. The money was not taken from adults, but from our students. Adults often comment, “oh, the Lip Sync was my favorite event,” “the Friday Night Live is awesome,” “that was always my favorite field trip,” or “I love the Easter Basket hunt.” Unfortunately, those are the events that will be hurt by the theft.
Yes, the Sheriff was called, Deputy Del Biaggio came to school to get information. Yes, we have learned our lesson, to those of you who are asking why anyone thought keeping $3,000 at school was a good idea.
Stealing from children is wrong, and it makes us sick. If anyone can find a way to help us recover our loss, the violation will still be fresh, but the harm will certainly be lessened.
Thank you,
Jennifer Kubik, Teacher in Charge
UPDATE Friday: Here is a way to donate if you would like to help.
https://www.facebook.com/donate/374606463012602/
Note: At the request of the author, some minor changes were made after the post was published.
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Ugly. Absolutely ugly.
So sorry this occurred. This upsets me. I’ll forego the public rant.
I bet if they started a Go Fund Me the community would step up and replace the stolen funds. Thieves are the worst and it breaks my heart we even have to do this, but this is the world we live in.
Go fund me accounts cost money. Just donate to the school directly so they get all of whatvyou give.
thumbs up!
Good God! Is nothing sacred? Stealing from children…Somebody must know something…
This is a violation of the entire community, not just the school. Anyone who has supported and/or contributed to Casterlin School has been victimized, in my opinion.
I am angered and upset.
Low down no account no good people or person.
Low down no account no good people or person.the need,for all these needle drop offs is what causes this to happen .
stealing quarters from kids… really? That’s methed up !
Whom ever is responsible for this,Shame on you, you are as low as can be, you do not deserve to breath. You do not belong in this community. My wife and i drove one hour to come have dinner, buy some pottery. and cookbook to support the kids going to DC. A month ago.What a community trying to teach kids the right way of values, then this happens, horrible, you THIEFS need to be ashamed, and dully punished, horrific, lower then scum. Kids keep your chins up, stay positive, grownups we know how to make justice work, put your ears to the ground, lets find justice , so the kids do relize there are good endings to those that try.Any fund raiser you kids come up with count me in, you all were so friendly and thankful the last time, i dont know who was happier, you kids getting the donations, or my wife and i getting to spend quality time with a quality community of grownups, and kids, god bless you guys!
Drain the swamp thats been created in Humboldt. Drugs,misfits and crime.That’s what the marijuana industry has resulted in attracting
Follow the scent, track them down, hold them accountable. Be sure the banks in town know of the theft. That many quarters won’t go unnoticed.
A hoodie, sunglasses and a quick trip to a Coinstar and they should be good to go.
Probably the kids.. we used to do terrible stuff like that when we were kids and didn’t know better.
Emily could be exactly right…if it is kids, they will probably never do anything like that again, after they apologize& listen to how it hurts so many people.
I always knew that stealing was wrong. How long before you figured it out?
I’m pretty sure the kids are elementary school age. The school is pretty remote. It seems highly likely that the burglars drove there. I doubt it was any of the students.
Where can we send a donation to?
The school’s address is Casterlin School, 24790 Alderpoint Rd, Blocksburg CA 95514.
Nope, not the kids. The tweakers are taking over Alderpoint. It is so horrible. Supposedly they have been into Alderpoint Store, Kettenpom Store and possible Rays in Garberville spending them. Hopefully the cops will watch the security cameras from all 3 places and catch them. Something needs to be done about these worthless animals!!! The Rez needs to go!!!
The Rez needs to go everything bad in AP starts and ends there. Zach Harrison can be found hiding out there. Stolen vehicles. Drugs. Children living in horrible conditions. The Sherriff knows who has been spending the quarters but hasn’t arrested anyone. I would encourage the locals to deal with them. It’s always the same people. I just saw that tweeker Terra was arrested for a bomb,weapons etc. We have been trying to get him out of AP for over a year. One down dozens to go. The kids at Casterlin are fantastic I would trust anyone of them with the quarters. It was adult tweeters. They will burn in hell.
Anyone know if they set up a go fund me?
Oh what scum of the earth won’t do for their drugs. Makes me sick. Hopefully the school will recover quickly. Praying so.
it’s sad but true, if you have ANYTHING of value it must be properly secured. desperate messed up people do desperate messed up things. don’t allow yourself to be a victim. sorry that happened to your community. [edit]
Another exemplary story from AP! Might not want to keep cash lying around up there!
Which school was it that had the WATER stolen right out of the tank?
Sorry kids! Don’t give up, there are some good folks around!
They also are on camera at napa spending our hard Raised quarters.maybe theses local businesses could .Donate the money back to the students.That would be a great story .
That’s 150 lbs of quarters!
3,000 quarters. one quarter weighs 5.67 grams.
3,000 x 5.67 = 17,010 grams
17,010 divided by 454 grams in a pound = 37.5 pounds
Brought to you by cannabis math.
$3000 x 4 = 12,000 quarters
12,000 x 5.67 grams = 68,040
68,040 divided by 454 grams in a pound = 150 pounds
Math brought to you by education. Stay in school.
Thank you for making my day😂
Start go fund me page please
Go fund me charges for the service. Donate directly, the address is in comments above
I think it was bridgeville school got water stolen right out the tank .
Im sure Our Southern Humboldt Credit Union can and would take any donation to Casterlin school.I would hope
The sad thing is it isn’t that easy to track them down just by looking out for them going to the bank with them, as someone said make sure all the bank’s know it happened and watch for them, most banks won’t deal with you especially trying to cash in quarters unless you have an account with them, and I really doubt anyone who would steal change from children has a bank account, plus there are a hundreds of those machines that you can dump your change in and it cashes It out, I don’t know if they have cameras on them but most are in places that have surveillance cameras, like the CASINOS were the meth heads love to take their change to try to get rich, that is were the search should start, get in touch with the companies that run change machines and check casino records and surveillance footage guaranteed you will find them fast [Edit]
Banks? Casinos? “Are you serious?” Tweakers buying Tweak.
Follow the money and you will find the tweakers. I’m sure there was more than one
Too bad the these thieves weren’t at the carwash yesterday, they could have saved that Nissan on fire
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