MIRAMAR, FLA. (WSVN) - A South Florida family was left shaken up after a man took a donation box during Halloween from their Miramar home.
Monica Zuluaga said she set out a basket full of candy for kids on Halloween at her home along Southwest 152nd Terrace, Wednesday night.
Next to the basket was a UNICEF donation box for her son’s class to send money to malnourished children in Africa.
“It’s sad because these kids don’t have any money, no nothing,” said Zuluaga’s son, Nicolas Arias. “All they have is just their family together. No food, no water, nothing.”
Surveillance video footage showed a man approaching her home and picking up the donation box before taking off with it.
It is unknown if there was money inside the donation box.
“My kids, my husband and I were really mad,” said Zuluaga. “I was giving out candy, not money, and this guy just took it.”
Zuluaga said she would expect this from kids but never from a grown man.
“What makes me really, really mad is the fact that it was an adult coming here,” she said. “There is no candy, and then he gets the box, and he’s like, ‘Money, oh, oh, no,’ so he puts it in his basket and leaves.”
Zuluaga said her son is now heartbroken.
“He was crying. He was very upset,” she said. “He just couldn’t believe that these things happen.”
The mother said her goal now is to raise more money, but she still hopes whoever took the box will do the right thing and return the donation box.
“I hope this person sees himself in the video and realizes what a great mess he made doing that, what the big deal is with that little box,” she said, “and also realizes that he looks really bad doing that, and hopefully he’ll stop and just not do it again.”
Late Thursday night, the daughter of the man caught on camera showed up to Zuluaga’s home and said her father didn’t take any money.
“My dad would never take anything from kids,” said Sharlene Rios. “If anything, he would give to kids. He did not try to hurt or manipulate or anything to these people.”
Rios donated $20 to the family.
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