After more than 12 hours of clearing snow around the Siena-Francis House on Christmas night, a crew of homeless men in job training went inside the shelter for a break.
When they came out, Executive Director Mike Saklar said, one of the shelter's three snowblowers had disappeared into the blustery night.
Stolen.
The men had left the snowblower unlocked while they warmed up and rested for about 45 minutes.
It gets worse.
Wednesday's snowy dawn revealed that the other two snowblowers also had been pilfered, this time from behind a locked gate, Saklar said. Someone had cut the lock, apparently with a power grinder.
Asked if he suspects guests of the shelter, Saklar said no.
“It'd have to be someone with a truck, unless they snowblowed their way down the street or something,” he said.
These were big snowblowers. They have to be, because Siena-Francis, 1702 Nicholas St., has several hundred feet of sidewalk, plus a parking lot and loading docks to clear.
“We're extremely disappointed, especially about the timing of the 25th,” Saklar said. “We have enough problems.”
It gets better.
A woman at a health clinic inside Siena-Francis on Wednesday heard about the thefts. She started dialing for help.
She happened to reach Little Engines Co., a business in northwest Omaha. Little Engines happened to have two used snowblowers that needed a good home.
They gave them to Siena-Francis.
“We had a couple of real nice snowblowers that we were looking to donate,” said Brian Steinbruck, Little Engines manager. “Pretty sad story, but hopefully some good can come of it.”
A Siena-Francis House crew fired up the snowblowers Wednesday afternoon. They're old, but they work, said Tim Sully, the shelter's development director.
“We are grateful,” Sully said.
Contact the writer:
444-1057, christopher.burbach@owh.com
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