Christmas may be over but there’s a Grinch on the loose in Vancouver: for the second year in a row thieves have made off with thousands of dollars' worth of electrical equipment belonging to the Firefighters' Burn Fund.
Dozens of heavy gauge electrical cords and cables used to power the Bright Nights in Stanley Park display, the charity’s biggest fundraiser, were stolen on Monday night.
“It is extremely disheartening,” said Ray Boucher of the BC Professional Firefighters' Burn Fund.
“We are a charity, we raise money to help burn survivors throughout the community, and to get hit like this again is a real kick in the head.”
This isn’t the first time Bright Nights has been hit: copper thieves struck twice last year, once during the display’s set up and once during the clean-up.
“Same areas, same cables – that’s why I’m thinking it’s the same people,” said Boucher, noting he believes the thieves must have had a truck to steal the more than 2,000 pounds of equipment.
With no arrests made, the Burn Fund is reeling from the financial loss.
More than $10,000 worth of cables need to be replaced, an electrician needs to be hired to do repairs, and the charity now needs to spend donation money on extra security.
“Your faith in humanity just takes a dive…Who’s doing this? Who’s that desperate?” said Grant Smith, a North Vancouver firefighter.
“You know I can give you some money, are you that desperate you need to steal from a charity?”
With files from CTV Vancouver’s Shannon Paterson
