Holiday Spirit Saves Gift Giveaway

Investment banker Martha Spano, figuring that her niece and nephew already had enough Christmas toys, drove to the Eastside from Glendale on Tuesday.

Susan Lewis sneaked out of work and drove there from Sylmar, bringing two dump trucks that were too big for her 2-year-old daughter.

Hundreds joined them throughout the day at the Hollenbeck Youth Center in Boyle Heights, turning the worst part of Christmas into the best part.

A group of youths had broken into the center Sunday night or Monday morning and stolen the 3,500 presents that the center had collected for poor neighborhood youngsters, as it has each Christmas for more than a decade.

But in response to a TV broadcast, so many gifts began to flow in from corporations and individuals--2,500 by mid-Tuesday--that the center expects to eventually have three times as many gifts as it started out with.

With such an outpouring, it was little wonder that four suspects, arrested Tuesday shortly before noon, were being cooperative with authorities, apparently out of a sense of shame, police said.

Described as gang “wannabes” with little parental supervision, the suspects apparently gave armloads of the toys to family and friends and threw others in trash bins, police said.

“One of them said he heard the publicity on television and felt guilty,” said Det. Saul Nares.

One of the donors who drove to the Hollenbeck center Tuesday morning remembered being on the receiving end of the annual Christmas toy giveaway.

“I used to run these streets when I was a kid. I know what it’s like here,” said Mary Hall of Duarte, who came back with $200 worth of Walkmans, Barbie dolls and other toys she had bought on her credit card.

“I already ran up my bill, so I might as well charge a little more,” she said.

Directors of the center said they plan to give out the toys Saturday.

Most donors who came in response to the thefts were from outside the area.

Georgina Sands, who attends St. Paul’s Presbyterian Church in Anaheim, decided that the 24 cases of Power Rangers activity books and other toys left over from the church’s giveaway last Saturday wouldn’t go to waste.

“This just goes to show what Southern California can do,” said the Georgia native, who said she had been losing faith in the region’s benevolence. “These kids are going to have a Christmas in spite of it all.”

A block from the center, Maria Medina, a 23-year-old mother of two boys who has come to the Christmas giveaway for the past several years, watched from her apartment doorstep in gratitude.

“I’m so glad to see people came to help,” she said. “If they hadn’t brought [the toys], I would have had some very sad children on my hands.”

Post Alarm Systems installed a new security system at the center, free of charge. A Target store in Alhambra donated a 15-foot Christmas tree and the workers to decorate it in the middle of the center’s worn boxing ring. Representatives of the Walt Disney Co. and Mattel, who had donated some of the toys that were stolen, contributed another 400 and 800 toys, respectively.

The area’s City Council member, Richard Alatorre, lobbied the council to put up a $10,000 reward leading to the conviction of the thieves. The reward was offered shortly before the arrests were made, but there was no immediate indication that it played a role, and other arrests may be made, police said.

Los Angeles County Sheriff Sherman Block gave toys to the center and Los Angeles Police Chief Willie L. Williams made a financial contribution. Jay Leno pledged $10,000.

Arrested on suspicion of theft were Eddie Hernandez, 20, two 16-year-old boys and a 15-year-old boy. Police said they used bolt cutters and a van to steal the toys.

Police found about 200 toys at a residence in the 2000 block of Pennsylvania Avenue, a few blocks from the center. They were stowed in two large bags, featuring tags apparently written by the suspects to friends and relatives, police said.

Nares said it was not clear what proportion of the toys went to acquaintances and to neighborhood children or were thrown away. Police believe that some of the stolen toys were taken away in a large van that was reported seen near the Pennsylvania Avenue residence.

Some of the toys “may end up at a swap meet,” Nares said. “We’ll be canvassing them.”