Christmas miracle thanks to Black Country community as stolen decorations returned

Support has flooded in for Darlaston All Active on Victoria Road after their Christmas decorations were on December 11, with some items worth more than £200.

The community came together to support the events charity, which operates in Darlaston Town Hall, by donating Christmas lights, food, and even some of the stolen goods.

Founder of Darlaston All Active Sharon Felton, said: "We have had so much donated. Today is all about good news, we have had people in with new stuff, and some of the old stuff is coming back to us.

"One man came to us after realising the decoration he bought online was stolen and he gave it back, he paid a bit of money for the item too but he gave it back to us. We just want to say thank you to everyone."

At about 2:30pm on Sunday, December 11, two thieves jumped the fence at the town hall to steal the festive decorations.

The decorations were part of Santa's Grotto run by the Darlaston All Active Charity, which helps to put on affordable weekly activities for the local community.

Ms Felton said: "We had so much stolen, we had all the big snowman figures and big lanterns, they weren't cheap either, they are really quite expensive.

"They also had two big brass bells, which were about £100, but they had a lot of history behind them, they came back at least, but there was a lot that didn't."

Following the theft, the wider Darlaston community came together to help return Christmas to the Town Hall.

Ms Felton continued: "We have had such a good response since the story went out, we have had some of the stuff returned to us, one lad who bought a stolen decoration online bought it back to us.

"The bad thing is they had cut off all the plugs, so we won't be able to use them this Christmas, but we will try to get them rewired for next year for sure."

The charity started an online appeal asking for the stolen decorations to be returned, not expecting new decorations to also make their way to the Town Hall.

The project manager talked about the support of the community, she said: "Today is all about the good news, people are coming in and have donated new decorations and even some of the stolen stuff is making its way back.

"We have had so much support for our food bank initiative as well, We had a lovely gent this morning who bought two big bags of chocolates. We have had a lot of support from the local Morrisons and Tesco and we have even had a full pallet of Christmas puddings donated too.

"We have had a lot of support with money donations since the robbery. I could honestly cry with how much came in."

The charity group is now working alongside Sewa Kitchen Walsall, giving out free 'thank you' dinners to the needy for all the continued support given by the community.

Ms Felton said: "There are around 350 meals going out so far, we are doing 50 ourselves and the others are coming from Sewa Kitchen Walsall.We had around £150 given to us as donations and we wanted to use it to go bigger for our community.

"I just really want to say thank you to not only the Darlaston community but every community as a whole, this has gone so much farther than just Darlaston.

"Nobody wants our children to be sad over Christmas and everyone has given us so much support, I could honestly cry."

More information on Darlaston All Active, or ways to donate, can be found on the charities website darlastonallactive.co.uk/