(July 14, 2016) A late-night burglary last Tuesday evening at Copy Center in Ocean Pines resulted in the theft of about $750 set aside for Gina’s Comfort Fund, a charity established to honor the late Gina Barnes, who died of colon cancer in 2014.
Her mother, Linda Dearing, learned of the break-in the following morning. Several hundred dollars from the register was also missing.
Video surveillance captured what appeared to be a white male breaking in. Dearing, the owner of the store, said police had no leads as of early this week.
She described the man as “late 40s, early 50s.”
“They actually broke into the back end of the building and came through the Hileman agency into the inside hallway, and then they broke into my door from the hallway – not from outside,” Dearing said. “I think they knew exactly what they were going for. We watched the whole video of the guy walking around the whole building, trying to figure out what door he was going to go in.”
Dearing said the man was in the shop for about six minutes. Nothing else in the store was stolen or out of place.
Linda Kessinger, an office manager at the store, was the first to come in that day. When she phoned her boss to tell her the news, Dearing’s first reaction was, “We were blessed. It’s all right. So we lose a couple hundred dollars out of the register? No big deal.”
When she came into the shop, however, she found the container missing. Along with the cash, it had a picture of Gina and a blue ribbon for colon cancer awareness.
“It really got me emotionally. I thought, what kind of person would come in specifically to take cancer money?” she said. “It didn’t look like he messed up anything else as far as retail, electronics or anything like that, but he took the cash out of the register and took the container of colon cancer money that we had on the counter. We had been collecting that money since April,” Dearing said.
She had planned to donate that money to a local cancer center in honor of her daughter’s birthday, July 1.
“I would have normally sent the money to the cancer center in her name, but I had five of my grandchildren here through the Fourth of July, so I didn’t get it done. When I came in on Wednesday it was my intention to take that money, count it out and deposit it. And, of course, they came in [the night before] and took it,” Dearing said. “It was devastating.”
“I lost her two years ago to colon cancer and that’s why I do this. I’m trying to help other colon cancer victims, because there’s not much out there for colon cancer. It’s mostly about breast cancer,” Dearing added.
Dearing said police were at the store for “about a half a day” on Wednesday, taking pictures, collecting fingerprints and watching the surveillance video. Since then, she has printed photos from the video and distributed them to customers.
“We also put it on our Facebook page and asked all of our friends to share it, that maybe somebody would recognize him,” she said.
After news of the break in went public, Dearing said several people came in with cash donations for Gina’s Comfort Fund.
“That day the crime scene closed us down and [police] wouldn’t let anybody in, so we stood out on the front porch of our unit and greeted customers to let them know [what happened]. And people handed me money even then,” Dearing said. “For the evil that’s out there, there’s plenty of good.”
To donate to Gina’s Comfort Fund, visit the shop at 11065 Cathell Road, or call 410-208-064.
Her mother, Linda Dearing, learned of the break-in the following morning. Several hundred dollars from the register was also missing.
Video surveillance captured what appeared to be a white male breaking in. Dearing, the owner of the store, said police had no leads as of early this week.
She described the man as “late 40s, early 50s.”
“They actually broke into the back end of the building and came through the Hileman agency into the inside hallway, and then they broke into my door from the hallway – not from outside,” Dearing said. “I think they knew exactly what they were going for. We watched the whole video of the guy walking around the whole building, trying to figure out what door he was going to go in.”
Dearing said the man was in the shop for about six minutes. Nothing else in the store was stolen or out of place.
Linda Kessinger, an office manager at the store, was the first to come in that day. When she phoned her boss to tell her the news, Dearing’s first reaction was, “We were blessed. It’s all right. So we lose a couple hundred dollars out of the register? No big deal.”
When she came into the shop, however, she found the container missing. Along with the cash, it had a picture of Gina and a blue ribbon for colon cancer awareness.
“It really got me emotionally. I thought, what kind of person would come in specifically to take cancer money?” she said. “It didn’t look like he messed up anything else as far as retail, electronics or anything like that, but he took the cash out of the register and took the container of colon cancer money that we had on the counter. We had been collecting that money since April,” Dearing said.
She had planned to donate that money to a local cancer center in honor of her daughter’s birthday, July 1.
“I would have normally sent the money to the cancer center in her name, but I had five of my grandchildren here through the Fourth of July, so I didn’t get it done. When I came in on Wednesday it was my intention to take that money, count it out and deposit it. And, of course, they came in [the night before] and took it,” Dearing said. “It was devastating.”
“I lost her two years ago to colon cancer and that’s why I do this. I’m trying to help other colon cancer victims, because there’s not much out there for colon cancer. It’s mostly about breast cancer,” Dearing added.
Dearing said police were at the store for “about a half a day” on Wednesday, taking pictures, collecting fingerprints and watching the surveillance video. Since then, she has printed photos from the video and distributed them to customers.
“We also put it on our Facebook page and asked all of our friends to share it, that maybe somebody would recognize him,” she said.
After news of the break in went public, Dearing said several people came in with cash donations for Gina’s Comfort Fund.
“That day the crime scene closed us down and [police] wouldn’t let anybody in, so we stood out on the front porch of our unit and greeted customers to let them know [what happened]. And people handed me money even then,” Dearing said. “For the evil that’s out there, there’s plenty of good.”
To donate to Gina’s Comfort Fund, visit the shop at 11065 Cathell Road, or call 410-208-064.