CEDAR SPRINGS, Mich. — When Angela Groom didn’t see the vans parked near the food pantry at the City Impact Community Center last Tuesday, she thought maybe it was their pastor playing a joke or that he loaned them out to someone.
So, she called him.
“I got here about 6:30 [a.m.] and there is no van,” Groom said during an interview with FOX 17 a week later on Monday. “He’s like you know ‘I think somebody stole them.’ It was just total disbelief. It was almost like we were waiting for somebody ‘ha ha ha, joke,’ you know.”
However, it wasn’t a joke. Both of their vans — a white one and a silver one — were stolen. She said their pastor, Jonathan Bergsma, called the police and filed a report.
Meanwhile, Groom had to figure out how to do a food run that morning. She typically drives around to various locations, picking up donated foods at scheduled times. However, with the vans missing that was tough to do.
“We’re getting about 10,000 pounds of food. That’s a lot of food. And, when we don’t have those vehicles, it’s really difficult,” Groom said. “We need that food to feed all these folks, neighbors. The need is really high out there.”
She said they help 150 people a week through their food pantry.
In the meantime, City Impact posted on their Facebook page that their vans had been stolen. Within a week, one was found.
Bergsma texted Fox 17 and stated that their white 2008 passenger van was still missing.
Groom said they didn’t have any security cameras but they checked the ones at Dollar General, which is next door. Due to its angle, they couldn’t make out the people who stole the vans.
She said the van is currently being fingerprinted and assessed by police. And in the wake of all that’s happened, they’re looking into installing cameras and putting up a fence.
However, she believes they’re not drivable.
“Lots of stuff wrong with it. So, that was really disheartening because, you know, it’s like what are we going to do? You kind of get in that panic mode,” Groom said. “It’s like you know what, the Lord is going to provide and people just started [saying] ‘hey you can use our truck,’ you know that kind of stuff. And it’s in getting fixed now. We’re hoping we getting it back as soon as possible because we really really need it.”
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