Burglary of fire-damaged property a low blow for Santa Rosa’s Carpenter family

Much kindness has flowed to Santa Rosa’s Carpenter family since a fire believed caused by a plugged-in hoverboard destroyed their home and killed their two dogs.

But this came, too. Someone sneaked onto their property days ago and stole several items from a backyard shed - and 12-year-old Cassady Carpenter’s new bike.

“They just took everything they could of value,” Dave Carpenter said. Among the items taken were his framed, signed Bo Jackson jersey.

But his daughter’s bicycle? “That’s really what gets me the most,” he said.

His and his wife Kim’s bikes were taken, too, and a few railroad lanterns and Black & Decker power tools.

Dave Carpenter said friends and strangers have given his family a great deal to be thankful for. The Carpenters are loving the puppy given to them by a Central Valley dog lover who once lost her home to fire.

But this burglary was cruel.

p.s. This story was posted on pressdemocrat.com on Wednesday and what seemed like minutes later a tearful woman, Laurie Roskam, entered The Bike Peddler in Santa Rosa and told the shop’s co-owner Jim Keene she wished to buy a bicycle for a child whose bike was stolen.

Hearing the story of what happened to the Carpenters, Keene told Roskam, how about you buy Cassady a helmet and I’ll give her a bike?

A bike-shopping excursion will happen soon.

IN A SIMILAR VEIN, a retired teacher walked into the office at east Santa Rosa’s Whited School the other day and asked to leave something for first-grader Kale DeBiase.

Kale’s the caring lad of 6 who felt so badly for people burned out by the Valley fire in September that he donated to them the contents of his piggy bank. On Feb. 1, Kale and his family fled the flames that consumed their Rincon Valley apartment.

Staffers at Whited School mounted a campaign to raise money to help Kale and his kin replace some lost essentials.

The retired teacher gave school secretary Lisa Rossi a new piggy bank and asked her to get it to Kale and his family. Inside was a Safeway gift card, and a check for $1,000.

Rossi said many other of the gifts that have come to the DeBiases, who’ll soon move into another apartment, have touched her heart, too. A school playground monitor who lives on very little gave $10. A 6th grader heard Kale’s e-reader burned and gave him a new one.

And a parent who donated an envelope of cash explained that her family agreed they’d like Kale and his family to have the money they’d saved up for the approaching Persian New Year. The envelope contained $500.

TOYWORKS UNWINDS: Sunday is Valentine’s Day and, unintentionally, the last day of business for The Toyworks shop in Santa Rosa.

A quality-toy fantasyland in the city since 1977, The Toyworks is closing because the rented retail space on College Avenue went up for sale and its owners and toy shop owners John and Marilyn Goehring couldn’t strike a purchase deal.

Without a suitable place to move, the Goehrings will consolidate the store with their one remaining The Toyworks, in Sebastopol.

Marilyn said the message of their Valentine’s Day, final-day sale to Santa Rosa goes something this: “We love you, and we’re sorry it didn’t work out.”

Chris Smith is at 521-5211 and chris.smith@pressdemocrat.com.