SULTAN — In the annals of local larceny, this one ranks among the low, perhaps on the same level as stealing urns from grave sites or bells from churches.
Sometime between Tuesday night and Wednesday morning, someone drove off with the delivery truck belonging to the Sultan Food Bank.
The box truck is used to bring food to town for the needy. In any given month, food is provided to more than 400 households in Sultan, Startup, Gold Bar, Index and Skykomish.
“My worst fear just came true,” said Calei Vaughn, who was raised in the Skykomish Valley and serves as director of the Volunteers of America in Sultan.
Vaughn and her fellow employees had a sinking feeling when they arrived at work on Wednesday morning.
Somebody had broken into the building. The truck also was gone. They knew it was too early for volunteers to make their rounds to pick up donations.
“People have the common misperception that it’s a business and this won’t hurt them,” Vaughn said. “We are a nonprofit and it hurts.”
Surveillance footage might prove helpful.
“We do know there was someone who shouldn’t have been there at 3:45 yesterday morning,” Vaughn said Thursday.
She expected the white truck to turn up the same day. It’s like a big rolling billboard with the words “Sultan Food Bank” and “Serving Upper Sky Valley” and “Volunteers of America” in bold blue letters on the side of the truck. There also is a phone number.
Vaughn said the 2003 truck is getting old and the food bank had been exploring lease options. The truck covers a wide territory, stopping to glean at supermarkets across Snohomish County and crossing into King County.
The problem is, the food bank is on a shoe-string budget and needs time to find an affordable long-term solution.
“We needed a little more time to put a transition into place,” Vaughn said. “Now we just don’t have the time or the money.”
The Volunteers of America distribution center in Everett has offered up a truck in the interim. The Skykomish Valley Food Bank and Town of Skykomish have made similar gestures.
“Our neighbors have really stepped up,” Vaughn said.
It is not clear how thieves got inside the building. There were no obvious signs of a break-in.
Sultan police took a burglary report Wednesday morning.
The food bank manager reported that a laptop computer as well as two sets of car keys had been stolen from the office and the truck was missing. It had been parked in a locked fenced yard that is shared with the City of Sultan Public Works Department. There is a sensor on the inside gate that opens for vehicles leaving the yard.
The last volunteer to use the truck reported it had been there when he left around 7:30 p.m. Tuesday.
Burglars also hit the food bank in the spring. At the time, keys to two vehicles were stolen as were keys to the building. Locks were changed to the vehicles and to the building.
The food bank is at 703 1st St. It’s open from 5 to 7 p.m. Tuesdays and from 9:30 a.m. to noon on Fridays.
The greatest needs at the moment are for volunteers, particularly from in and around Everett, to drive the truck that’s being loaned out of Everett, Vaughn said. Right now, people from the Sky Valley would have to drive to Everett to borrow a truck, pick up the groceries, drive them to Sultan, drive the truck back to Everett and then head back to the valley.
Someone living in Everett could simply pick up the truck, make the rounds, drop the goods off in Sultan and return the truck to the distribution center, she said.
To learn more, go to www.voaww.org/foodbank
Eric Stevick: 425-339-3446; stevick@heraldnet.com.
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