KOMO

CONCRETE, Wash. — The small town of concrete is lost for words after surveillance cameras captured a man stealing a donation box for a local fallen soldier.

This isn’t your typical shoplifting case. Surveillance footage shows a man walking to the check out stand of a local grocery store and picking up a clear donation box filled with cash. The man is then seen stuffing it under his sweat shirt before and leaving the store.

The money is supposed to go to a memorial fund to honor Special Forces Officer Doug Vose, who was killed by insurgents while serving in Afghanistan.

To help pay for the soldier’s memorial, Richard Frank placed the donation boxes at the registers of his store, DBA Albert’s Family Grocer.

"When I found out there was one gone, I had to ask everybody if they put it somewhere that I didn’t know about, and they didn’t. So I went up to look at the cameras and when I found the kid on there, I got really mad inside," he said.

Frank was close to the soldier, who worked at the store in the late 1980s. News of Vose’s death was heartbreaking, Frank said, and the theft of the donation boxes was a slap in the face.

"Another blow to us, yeah. We were trying to do something good," he said.

Skagit County sheriff’s detectives believe they’ve identified the suspect.

Frank, meantime, will continue to raise money for their hometown hero.

Anyone who’d like to help pay for the soldier’s memorial can make a
donation online.