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Who would steal from a hospice organization?

Posted at 11:17 PM, Jul 17, 2014
and last updated 2014-07-17 23:17:33-04

Gloucester County, Va. - It may be hard to tell, but Doc Cook does not have long to live. He's making sure every moment he has left counts.

"You have to leave something, and if you can leave something with someone else than you've won," Cook says.

For the 71-year-old, winning means taking action to help others on their last leg of life.
He organizes fundraisers for Hospice Support Services of Northern Neck.

All the while, Cook is dying of severe lung disease.

"I got involved with it because I have hospice,” Cook says. “I have three months to live."

During a bike ride fundraiser last week, more than $1,600 in donations were stolen. It happened at Damon's Sports Bar and Grill in Gloucester.

"For a long time I had high hopes for humanity, but when something like this happens it definitely puts a crush on it," he says.

Cook says an organizer put the money under her purse below a table. She went to the bathroom, came back, and the donations were gone.

"I mean, I can't understand how people would take something from something that is helping somebody within their last stages of life,” Cook says. “Just didn't make any sense to me."

That night, he says fellow bikers and companies took action to make up the loss giving a combined $5,000.

"These people have very big hearts," he says.

However, with 289 dying patients in the program who need hospice just like Cook, every cent counts.

"It’s not something that you forget easily, nor do you forgive easily," he says.

If you have any information about this theft, you can take action and call the Crime Line 1-888-LOCK-U-UP.