Health Center Shares Aid After Robbery

For residents of the Sylmar Health and Rehabilitation Center, this has been the Christmas even the Grinch could not steal.

Last week, after crooks robbed an employee of $5,000 intended for patients’ Christmas presents, the public responded with holiday cheer.

So far, concerned residents have donated $30,000 to the rehabilitation center, and the total continues to rise.

Overwhelmed by such generosity, officials at the center decided to spread the joy around.

So when Target Corp. presented the center a $5,000 check Friday morning, officials at the mental health facility announced that they would give half of the money to the Hollenbeck Youth Center in Boyle Heights, which last week was robbed of 3,500 Christmas toys.

“We’re kind of in the same situation. They lost toys and we lost money,” said Rodney Inatomi, activities director at the mental health center.

“We’ve been given so much more than we lost, we wanted to share our good fortune. It’s all about Christmas,” he said.

The rehabilitation center is a privately owned, secured facility that operates with some governmental assistance, Inatomi said.

About 205 patients, 18 to 57 years old, with severe and chronic mental illnesses are supervised by about the same number of staffers.

Christmas shopping is one of the few occasions when the patients are allowed to leave the locked facilities.

For the last two weeks, they have been visiting Target in groups of 13 to select gifts for themselves.

“This year, everyone is going to have everything they wanted--plus,” Inatomi said.

“We want to thank all the people and the businesses that have helped out.”

The money left over after the holiday will be placed in a trust fund to be used to pay for clothes and personal items for the patients throughout the year.

On Sunday, as an additional holiday treat, about 75 motorcycle-riding members of the Narcotics Officers Assn. plan to visit the center to distribute gifts that they collected after hearing about the robbery.