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State Police: Outpouring has far exceeded theft of Christmas toys

E-mail | Print | Comments () Posted by Andrew Ryan, Globe Metro Desk December 22, 2010 05:02 PM

Massachusetts State Police

By L. Finch, Globe Correspondent

Four days after a thief or thieves made off with 1,500 toys from a Toys for Tots storage container in Burlington, a flurry of donations have “far surpassed” the amount stolen, State Police announced today.

State Police have collected about $114,000 in donations and hundreds of toys as of this morning. Workers will continue sorting and distributing the toys to children throughout the day, officials said.

The Toys ‘R’ Us tractor-trailer brought $15,000 worth of toys to the Toys for Tots warehouse in Burlington today.

Many donated toys flowed into State Police headquarters in Framingham from private citizens, and others came in from groups, such as a Westborough elementary school and the state Department of Environmental Protection, which collected toys on behalf of the program, according to State Police.

“We are extremely grateful for the many, many people who opened their hearts to this program to recoup – and then to far exceed – what was lost,” State Police said in a statement.

State Police said an investigation into the theft continued, with detectives following various leads.