200 Tricycles Stolen From SF Firefighters Toy Program

SAN FRANCISCO, CA — Just days before the Thanksgiving holiday, Sally Casazza received a very disconcerting phone call. Someone had broken into the San Francisco Firefighters Toy Program storage unit and stolen 200 tricycles meant to be donated to underprivileged children as holiday gifts this year.

"At first I thought it was a joke," Casazza told Patch, chairwoman of the SF Firefighters Toy Program. "Why would that chain be cut?"

Theives pilfered 100 fire engine-red "trikes" and 100 blue tricycles, only leaving one behind and a few adult bicycles. Many of the trikes were Radio Flyer, which can cost up to $60 each. The loss likely added up to thousands of dollars.

"They only left one trike and it was kind of rattly, so they must have noticed that and left it," Casazza said, adding that someone must have plotted the heist over the weekend or late at night, and would've needed a vehicle big enough to escape with all 200 trikes.

"They're all gone and it's pretty sad," Jill Peeler told Patch, the organization's event coordinator. "Hopefully we will find who did it."

Normally in the weeks leading up to the holiday season Peeler and Casazza would be prepping to host an event to give out toys and tricycles to children in need. Every year, the toy program asks children to write an essay on why they'd like to be given a bike — and up to 1,000 kids would automatically win.

This year, amid COVID-19 concerns, the organization planned to give them out as gifts with the rest of the toys to children in the Bay Area.

"The timing was really bad, we were just going to start distributing toys," Casazza said, adding that no questions would be asked if the tricycles were returned. "It would be great to have them all back."

The Toy Program has been around since 1949, evolving from a few firefighters helping to repair broken toys and bicycles for around 15 families to 300 firefighters and volunteers to working together to distribute 200,000 toys to more than 40,000 disadvantaged children in the last several years.

Despite the disappointing blow to the program's arsenal of gifts that were to be given to children this holiday season, Casazza said many people in the Bay Area have already promised to make a donation.

"If we could get a bunch of people just donating to replace individual trikes, that would really help," she said.

Anyone who would like to make a donation to the SF Firefighters Toy Program can either mail a check to 2225 Jerold Ave. San Francisco, CA 94124 or contact the program at 415-777-0440 or send Casazza an email at reno2150@pacbell.net.

Casazza added that Amazon and Target gift cards could also go directly to families in need and can be sent to the SF Firefighters Toy Program.