Grinches Don’t Win This Time : Aid Flows In to Replace Family’s Stolen Christmas

An unexpected blizzard of Christmas cheer fell Tuesday upon an impoverished South-Central Los Angeles family whose home was cleaned out by thieves while the mother visited her young, cancer-stricken daughter at a hospital.

The two police officers who were flagged down by a distraught Blanche Griffin after she found her West 85th Street home looted of clothing, food and wrapped Christmas gifts reached into their own pockets and immediately purchased $100 worth of replacement toys for her five children.

Actor Henry Winkler dispatched a $1,000 check and a personal letter to the family to express his dismay at the Scrooge-like attack, which left Griffin, 34, with an empty closet and her children with only the clothes on their backs.

Griffin’s landlord quickly found a new house for her to move into. And workers from AT&T; volunteered to install a free security alarm system in it to protect the family in the future.

Former President Ronald Reagan telephoned Griffin to offer his best wishes for her 9-year-old daughter’s recovery and to promise his assistance in replacing household goods that were spirited off early Monday while Griffin and three of her children visited ailing Vernika Griffin at Cedars-Sinai Medical Center.

By Tuesday night, new clothing, toys, canned food and more than $3,500 in cash had been dropped off for the family at the Los Angeles Police Department’s 77th Street Division station.

“People have just opened their hearts,” said Sgt. Art Ficke, whose office was serving as a clearinghouse for the donations.

Griffin was in tears as some of the toys were delivered to Vernika at the hospital by firefighters and police officers.

“This is a miracle,” said Griffin, a single mother who moved with four of her children from Arkansas to Los Angeles two years ago to work as a domestic.

“I thought my family would not be able to enjoy this Christmas. I thought it would be a disaster because we had spent all of the money we had on clothes and toys and it was all gone.”

Earlier, Griffin had been surprised by Reagan’s telephone call when she visited the police station to thank Officers Juan Santos and Kevin Becker for the toys they had purchased.

The former President said he had been moved by news reports of the crime.

“You could see the desperation on her face when she ran out and flagged us down,” Santos said of Griffin. “People had been watching her house, and they knew she went to the hospital every day to visit her little sick girl.”

Her plight was familiar to Santos, 39. The eight-year veteran said he grew up the son of a New York minister whose home was frequently burglarized Sunday mornings by thugs who knew the family would be at church.

Santos and Becker discovered that about $1,200 worth of gifts had been purloined from Griffin’s house--including a battery-powered toy police motorcycle, a blackboard and a stereo set.

The gifts were for Vernika and Griffin’s son Donta, 12, and other daughters, Tasha, 8, and Alicisa, 2. Another son, Steven, 16, lives with Griffin’s mother in Arkansas.

As gifts and cash poured in Tuesday, Becker promised Griffin that police will use the money to purchase replacement clothing and household goods so she is not disqualified from Medi-Cal payments that are covering Vernika’s chemotherapy.

At the hospital, Vernika clutched a check for $250 donated by hospital workers, and hugged her mother.

“Momma, why are you crying?” she asked.

Dr. Carole Hurvitz, director of the children’s cancer treatment program at the hospital, said Vernika--and her family--have won the hearts of doctors and nurses because of their daily visits over the 20 weeks that the girl has been a patient.

Vernika’s condition is guarded, Hurvitz said. Cancer that started in the girl’s brain last year has spread to her spine.

“We hope to get her home in time for Christmas, but she’ll have to come back again next week for more chemotherapy,” Hurvitz said.

Said Griffin: “It’s going to be our best Christmas ever.”