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Redmond nonprofit dedicated to helping people fight cancer dealing with Thanksgiving theft

The American Cancer Society Discovery Shop is recovering from a Thanksgiving theft ahead of Giving Tuesday. Thousands of dollars worth of merchandise are gone.

SEATTLE — The decorations are up and the Christmas music is on at the Overlake Discovery Shop

One-hundred percent of the proceeds go to cancer research and programs. 

The store is run by volunteers. 

“Everyone here gives their time and their energy and time away from their families to help other families,” said Diane Stone, a volunteer manager and four-time cancer survivor. 

All the volunteers are dedicated to helping those with cancer.

“Thanksgiving, one of our volunteers, Jessie, he drove by the back of the store to check how things were going and noticed the lock was broken on our pod where we were storing new merchandise,” Stone said. 

When the volunteer opened the doors, he found nearly everything was gone.

“The thieves did not take these sticker books, but they took everything else of value,” Stone said.

Gone is approximately $6,000 worth of merchandise gifted by a corporate donor.

Though it happened at the Overlake shop, the impact is being felt at stores across our state.

The Redmond Police Department said they are investigating.

“There was so much theft that it’s really a challenge for us to get donations of this magnitude on a consistent basis,” said Mike O’Sullivan, the field director at the American Cancer Society.

“It’s really depressing that someone would do something like that, especially during the holiday season,” said Stone.

It’s also something that’s never happened to the Discovery Shops before. Stone is confident though. She believes they’ll get more donations.

“We’re resilient and the community is wonderful and they’ll be donating to us over that time, I’m sure.”

The Overlake Discovery Shop is being remodeled and O’Sullivan said they will be adding a significant amount of security to ensure this doesn’t happen again.

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