Thousands of dollars raised last weekend by a Boy Scout troop in northeast Iowa have gone missing. Cub Scouts and Boy Scouts in the town of Jesup collected nearly $12,000 serving meals during Jesup Farmers Days.
Scoutmaster Kyle Troyer says all of the money, plus $1,000 more, was stolen from the Scout’s booth in downtown Jesup sometime early Sunday.
“Well, we thought (the booth) was much more secure than it was,” Troyer said. “The lock was just popped, basically.” Police are investigating, but Troyer has doubts they’ll catch the burglar.
“Uh, there’s not much hope for that…there are no real promising leads,” Troyer said. The scouts are keeping a positive attitude, despite the theft. Troyer reminded the boys that one of the Scout laws says ‘A Scout is Cheerful.’
“It is unfortunate the money is gone…but we’re doing our best to stay focused on looking on the bright side of life and realizing it is just money. Nobody was injured, you know, there are worse things that could happen,” Troyer said. “For the most part, the kids have handled things really well. We’re not vindictive about it, we’re not bitter about it. We don’t know who has the money, but we’re just going to do our best to move forward.”
A GoFundMe page has been set up to help replace the stolen money. There are also accounts set up at a couple of banks in Jesup.