School for Blind Burglaries Prompt a Deluge of Gifts

Struck by the audacity of the crime, community members on Thursday donated computers, microwaves, wads of cash--even pizza and game tokens--to help a preschool for blind children replace its losses after a string of burglaries.

“What happened today was totally unexpected--the way people rallied around us,” Gabrielle Hass, director of the Blind Children’s Learning Center, said. “Since 7 o’clock this morning, the phone’s been ringing with people asking: ‘What can I give?’ ”

The outpouring was prompted by publicity over the center’s recent woes--a spate of three burglaries this week--on Sunday, Monday and Tuesday nights--that totaled about $6,000 in losses.

The thief or thieves left little undisturbed. Along with three computers, two microwave ovens, a cassette player and other school equipment, they even took food from the pantry, the personal blankets of several children from their cubbyholes, and two pails filled with about $200 in pennies donated from the Main Street Fountain in Santa Ana.

“After the third (burglary), we figured you’ve got to be kidding,” said Lois Lauer, a secretary and volunteer coordinator at the private, nonprofit school at 2015 N. Broadway in Santa Ana. “That takes a lot of nerve.”

Patty Salcedo, a teacher at the school, said she was amazed that someone would steal a computer and other specialized equipment that offer the best communications link for some blind children with underdeveloped language skills.

“It was just unbelievable,” Salcedo said. “How could someone do that to blind babies?”

A 5-year-old from Cerritos who was left sightless after a premature birth was angry about the loss.

“They took the computer away!” the youngster, identified only as Krishna, said, referring to a voice-activated Apple 2E model that was fitted with a Braille keyboard pad for lessons and games.

“They’re yucky men,” he said. “I’ll get a gun and shoot ‘em!”

Whoever burglarized the center apparently gained entry Sunday night through a glass door and on Tuesday night through a window. School officials aren’t sure about the entry point for the second burglary Monday night.

Police, who have put extra patrols in the area since the burglaries, say they believe that the three break-ins are all connected but have no suspects yet.

“We really don’t have any leads in the case,” said Maureen Haacker, spokeswoman for the Santa Ana Police Department. “It could be one person or several people.”

For the Police Department, this has not been an altogether typical case, Haacker said.

Personnel were so struck by the “audacity” of the burglaries at a school for the blind that officers and several officers’ associations combined to give the school a check for $1,090 on Thursday to help cover its losses, Haacker said.

“It’s a case that’s pulled at everybody’s heartstrings here,” she said.

Police were not the only ones moved to action.

One local resident brought the school a microwave Thursday, and callers promised four more as well. A local firm donated a computer, with several more also pledged.

Someone promised to bring the children pizza on Monday. Chuck E. Cheese offered arcade tokens to replace the ones that had been planned for a field trip but were stolen.

The school received $3,200 in donations from corporations and individuals--including $500 from a Placentia man--and has pledges for thousands more, including $1,500 from the Irvine Co., Hass said.

And security companies have practically been falling over themselves to give the school alarm systems free or at cost, Hass said, adding that she will probably end up having to reject several offers. One company installed a $3,000 alarm system on Thursday, and another pledged to do security patrols three times a week free.

“This was just something that had to be done,” said Gary Beale, owner of American Alarm Systems of Santa Ana, who visited the school Thursday and donated a security system.

After visiting with some of the children, Beale said: “Something like this gets to you. Your heart swells up when you see people ripping off kids like these.”

Hass said the school had four people manning the phones and got more than 100 calls Thursday, with many people jamming the lines soon after reports of the crimes appeared on television news.

“Most people were just really outraged,” Hass said. “And the concern has been so genuine.”

Hass said: “I almost didn’t come to work today because I was so depressed from the last three days.”

But her mood changed as the day wore on, and she said the flood of donations has given an early launching to a much-needed fund-raising drive. Founded three decades ago, the school has doubled in size in the last several years and now serves more than 100 children at the center, in homes and in public schools. It has annual revenues of about $700,000 through contracts, tuition and public and private donations.

“After this, certainly my faith in humanity is restored,” said a smiling Hass. “Sometimes, out of bad things, good things come.”