'It's incredibly heartless;' Tens of thousands of dollars worth of toys stolen from local non-profit

JACKSONVILLE, Fla. — Tens of thousands of dollars’ worth of toys were stolen from V For Victory, a San Marco non-profit helping children who are battling cancer.

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“It’s incredibly heartless,” V for Victory Executive Director Jacklyn Overby said.

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V for Victory supports more than 600 families battling cancer by providing everyday services like lawn care, home cleaning and car repairs. The Legos are meant to offer a piece of joy to pediatric warriors. But that was all stripped away when Overby found hundreds of Lego sets missing from their warehouse this morning.

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“It’s an absolute violation,” Overby said. “But it really breaks my heart. And that’s 300 families that are not going to receive LEGO sets because someone decided to come in there and steal those.”

About two and half years ago, Lego gifted the organization 6500 sets, worth about $500,000.

Overby says when she walked into their warehouse this morning, she found about five pallets of nearly 300 Lego sets, missing.

“We’ve been transitioning them into different locations, bringing them here, and I walked into an empty room, there was $25-50,000 worth of Legos stolen from that space.

V for Victory shares a warehouse space with another company. And when Overby went inside their section, she says she found their two internal entrances unlocked. That includes the door connecting to the other warehouse space, and the shared restroom. She said the padlock on the outside was still left intact.

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“I just hope it was worth it for them,” Overby said. “Because it’s just really hard to imagine that anyone would know that they’re literally taking something that’s supposed to bring joy to someone in the hardest time of their life.”

But these missing blocks won’t make this organization tumble. Overby says they are going to continue to build their mission and put smiles on kids’ faces.

“This part of what we do was to bring joy and positivity to families [during] some of the toughest times of their life,” Overby said. “And this is not going to change our ability to do this. We’re going to find a way to keep moving forward.”

V for Victory filed a police report, and passed along all their surveillance video to detectives.

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