Six empty plastic barrels used in an annual toy donation campaign have been stolen.
Each year, the Cayman Islands Motorcycle Riders Association hosts Toys for Tots, in which people drop toys and gifts into specially decorated containers. The toys are then distributed across the districts before Christmas.
Association president Keith Keller says the barrels were stolen from outside a storage unit in Industrial Park in George Town earlier today, Tuesday, 29 Nov.
“Our Cayman Customs Cycles shop is in Dorcy Place, and we have a unit behind the shop where we store small stuff, like the barrels and things like that,” he said. “We were getting the barrels ready for donations on Thursday, 1 December, so we took them out today.
“The guys got the barrels out and put them outside the storage unit and went back inside for a minute. When they came back out, all six of the barrels were gone.”
Four of the white plastic barrels already had a brand new Toys for Tots wrap on them, so Keller says it’s unlikely whoever took them did so by mistake, thinking they had been discarded.
This is the 18th year the motorcycle association has run the Toys for Tots campaign. The barrels are placed outside venues like Cost-U-Less, Book Nook and Next Chapter, and members of the public are invited to drop toys into them.
The donation campaign runs until 15 Dec.
Each year, the bikers hit the road on a round-the-island ride to highlight the campaign, with Santa along as a passenger and motorbikes rigged out as sleighs and decorated with an array of Christmas ornaments and toys. This year’s ride is slated for 11 Dec.
Then, on 17 Dec., they will distribute the toys to children across the island.
Right now, Keller says all he wants is the barrels back.
“Just drop them right outside Cayman Custom Cycles, no questions asked,” he said.
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