Video shows thieves taking Easter eggs of boy with Down syndrome
Chula Vista police are investigating after eggs meant for an Easter egg hunt for a toddler with Down syndrome were stolen right from a family’s frontyard.
After Janet and Michael Ford left for church about noon Sunday, a neighbor spread several Easter eggs across their front lawn for the couple’s 2-year-old son, Gabriel, to find, said Janet Ford.
The family had been teaching the toddler to pick up things and they were looking forward to having him gather his eggs.
“This past January, Gabe had his fingers separated,” Ford said. He had a condition called syndactyly, where some or all fingers are conjoined, in both of his hands and he was in casts up to his armpits for six weeks. He just recently had the casts removed, she said.
They were looking forward to the egg hunt but when the family returned from church they found that all of the eggs on the lawn were gone.
“My husband was mad but I thought, no, it’s Easter. Easter is about forgiveness,” Ford said. So the family enjoyed the rest of their day, had a picnic and enjoyed some archery.
Later that evening they noticed that several Easter decorations that the couple’s older son had hung, which had not been taken along with the first batch of eggs, were also missing.
That is when they checked their home video surveillance tape and were surprised to see what they found.
It appeared that an older couple, a man and a woman, first walked up, noticed the eggs on the lawn and helped themselves to a few.
They then returned with two kids in tow and cleaned up the rest of the Easter goodies. Ford said it seemed like one of the boys on the tape was reluctant to follow the egg-thievery orders. The couple then came back a third time and took the holiday decorations.
Chula Vista police Lt. Fritz Reber said investigators were reviewing the surveillance tape. He said detectives have some people they want to talk to, but that they there is a language barrier and a Cantonese or Mandarin speaker is needed. Reber said they do not know why the couple in the video took the eggs but that they are “open to all possibilities.”
If it is determined that a crime occurred, it would be up to the San Diego County district attorney to press charges, the lieutenant said.
Baker writes for the San Diego Union-Tribune.
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