SOUTHWEST MIAMI-DADE, FLA. (WSVN) - A South Florida charity was able to deliver thousands of dollars in toys to children being treated at a hospital on schedule, weeks after those toys were stolen from outside a home, then recovered.
Dozens of toys lined the windows at the Nicklaus Children’s Hospital in Southwest Miami-Dade, Monday afternoon, making the wing resemble a toy store display.
The Mystic Force Foundation collected the toys that were given to young patients being treated for different forms of cancer. The nonprofit organization holds a monthly toy giveaway and party at the hospital.
The special delivery comes nearly a month after a trailer, filled with $5,000 worth of toys, was stolen from outside Mystic Force founder Sylvia Vanni’s North Miami home, April 24.
That trailer was recovered the next day in Sunrise. Police arrested 30-year-old Dudley Merus along with his brother, 25-year-old Endy Michael Merus, in connection to the theft.
Officers located most of the stolen toys after they pried open a shed at the home where the trailer was found.
“There was definitely a mystical force helping us to get our trailer back,” said Vanni.
Vanni founded Mystic Force after her son, Salvatore, died in 2011, at age 7, of neuroblastoma, a rare cancer. He was a patient at Nicklaus Children’s Hospital.
“I really believe that my baby had a lot to do with [the trailer being recovered],” said Vanni, “because there’s nothing he liked more than a party, and he wanted the party to go on.”
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