Thief spoils little kids’ big performance

Published 10:43 pm Friday, June 22, 2007

LYNNWOOD – They’ve danced all year, learning the traditional rhythms of Europe and Asia.

The children, ranging in age from 2 to 6 years old, practiced for hours.

On Wednesday morning, just hours before they were to perform for their parents in Pacific Preschool Development Center’s annual year-end ceremony, the 35 children slipped into plush purple vests and satiny scarlet dresses purchased for them in South Korea by the school’s owner.

It was the final dress rehearsal, school director Susan Torngren said, and the children were delighted. The sun was shining, so they practiced outside, in the school’s parking lot.

Within an hour, the children were heartbroken.

They came inside for lunch, leaving the costumes near the school’s door.

When they came back out, the clothes were gone.

Stolen, Torngren said.

“We think someone just drove up and put them in their trunk,” she said.

The outfits cost nearly $1,000, but it’s unlikely that the thief could sell them for that price, she said.

Torngren and her staff called the Lynnwood Police Department to file a report. Shannon Sessions, the department’s spokeswoman, said police don’t have any leads on the case.

“How do you tell children that somebody ripped them off?” Torngren said. “They just said, ‘When do we get to wear the pretty dresses?’ They don’t understand.”

Wednesday evening, Torngren broke the news to an audience of parents.

“I told them that we would have had lovely costumes,” she said.

The children made do. They tied scarves around their tiny waists and danced as though they were clad in the most exquisite of ensembles.

Still, they’d like to have their costumes back. In a school with cups filled with colored pens, ethereal naptime music and sunshine flooding through floor-to-ceiling windows, there is a dark cloud.

Reporter Krista J. Kapralos: 425-339-3422 or kkapralos@heraldnet.com.