Thief takes money and goods from Salvation Army

FORREST COUNTY, Miss - A nursery room is where a suspect entered the Salvation Army building and took backpacks with school supplies, gifts intended for children, and money from the famous red kettle bells.

Lt. Stacey Connelly of the Salvation Army says, "We're going to continue to press on even through this and we're just asking those to help us and recover from this crisis."

The Hattiesburg Police Department is investigating the crime and the Salvation Army is asking the community to join hand in hand and donate for those who need it most this season.

"Well the Salvation Army is going to keep its promise. The Salvation Army is going to make sure that no child wakes up without Christmas on Christmas morning. It does kind of hurt, if the individual needed help, all they had to do was reach out to us" Lt. Connelly says.

In the midst of the break-in, Lt. Connelly and her team are still in good spirits.

"I have faith in the people of Pinebelt. We were already behind in our red kettle goal, but we believe in the people of the Pinebelt are going to join together with us and what to coordinate and we are going to achieve that goal" Lt Connelly says.

The Hattiesburg Police Department recovered bloody napkins at the scene and the crime is still under investigation.