CURRITUCK COUNTY, N.C. — During the season of giving, the Crawford Township Volunteer Fire Department has allegedly had something taken: a couple hundred dollars and some blank checks.
“It's very disheartening," said Brandon Whitlow, fire chief of Crawford Township Volunteer Fire Department.
Every Saturday, the volunteer department hosts a bingo night. That’s how they raise a lot of their money to be able to purchase items they use to serve the community.
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“We've bought extrication equipment for the trucks. We've bought turnout gear to supply the volunteers. We have bought radio equipment and accessories.”
But at the most recent one on Dec. 15, they noticed something was off. A couple hundred dollars and some blank checks were gone.
“Sometime in the middle of the bingo play, our workers noticed that money was taken from the register area, along with a checkbook. They took pretty much a little over half of the what we would earn that night."
The situation is now in the hands of the Currituck County Sheriff’s Office.
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"We turned it over to the local Sheriff's Department. We also notified the bank that the sheriff's department is doing an investigation. They've reviewed our security cameras and compiling evidence."
But right now, the department is saddened that this has happened.
“We have no paid members, even the members running the fundraiser are all volunteers. All these people dedicate the time they could be spending with their family to come out and raise the money, and then someone takes it from an organization that returns it back to the community in some way or form.”
The hope is now that the people responsible are found or return it. In a time where holiday cheer is supposed to spread, not taken.
For more information on how you can support the Crawford Township Volunteer Fire Department, head to their website here.
