Tell Us About Stealing from a Family in Need

UPDATE: Stone Harbor Police announced the Nov. 2 surrender of this woman. See story elsewhere on the website.
Dear Woman in the plaid pants and long-dark hair:
I am sure you have probably seen yourself either on our website in the Wawa surveillance video or the still photo in last week’s Herald along with the story about what you did on Oct. 22 in Stone Harbor.
Yes, you, the one who saw fit to pay for some cigarettes and candy, then walked off with a collection box for the Thomas Fielder family.
People like you really disgust me. There are no other words to describe it. What you did was reprehensible in the extreme. I hope your conscience is bothering you, if, in fact, you have one.
I am sure your mother and father would be very proud to call you their daughter, especially now that your image has been spread far and wide for taking something that was meant for a family who lost most of their earthly possession in an Oct. 5 fire.
Something such as your dastardly act should not go unnoticed or unpublished.
Wow, I will bet they’d really like to snip out your photo and send it to all the relatives and grandparents.
“This is our little girl, doesn’t she look cute stealing that box from the counter?
Those people they were collecting for probably didn’t need it anyway, and well, you know, our girl, she likes to have a little extra in her pocket.
She always had a knack for being spontaneous and doing quirky things, but we thought you’d like to see what a great person she turned out to be,” they probably wrote to kin.
I hope, too, that you used “all” the money in that container for something life sustaining or to feed starving children.
By the way, how much did you get in that collection box? Five dollars? Maybe $20?
Did you have fun with the money? Did you wonder what that money would have bought the Fielders’ three children, two girls 8 and 10 months and the boy 5?
On the other hand, maybe something in the back of your brain kicked in, and you started to have second thoughts about what you did.
It’s not too late to call Stone Harbor Police Detective Thomas Shutta and turn yourself in. There is no excuse to remain “on the lam” when, sooner or later, someone will spot you and turn you in to police.
If I were the judge in your case, as part of your punishment, I would make you face the Fielder family and hand over all the money you took in that container, perhaps with some additional to help them become whole again.
By the way, have you ever lost everything in a fire? It is one of the most wrenching events that can happen to a family, especially with small children.
Having been in the news profession for many years, nothing should surprise me. I’ve covered many incredible events and crimes, like a crazed father who killed his three daughters on Easter morning in 1983; like a man who bolted from Lower Township Municipal Court, then in Cold Spring, then killed an innocent man in his bedroom as his bound wife watched in horror.
Yes, these were senseless murders. And there were also manhunts, atrocious assaults, and community-revered people locked up for being pedophiles and drunk drivers, to name just a few. And all this happened in humble, rural Cape May County.
Still, when the Stone Harbor Wawa general manager called to report the theft of that collection jar, I didn’t know what to think.
Anyone who meets the Fielders would have their heart go out instantly to that working family doing what many would not to make ends meet and raise their family.
Thomas worked in the Stone Harbor Wawa prior to his present job at the Rio Grande Wal-mart, and his wife also works in that Wal-mart. These are solid people the community is right to help.
Then, to think that someone, like you, would simply go into that store and swipe the collection box, I was floored.
I may be a fool, believing you will do the right thing. In your heart, deep down, you know what you did was wrong, really wrong. Make it right. The act may change your life, hopefully for the better.
Go ahead, surrender. Face the consequences of your action. Restore a bit of faith in humanity for readers and me.
Politically correct or not, on Judgment Day, when you stand before your Maker, think how you will explain what you did in Stone Harbor on Oct. 22, 2010 at 2:15 p.m. How will you face Him? What will you say?