29 March 2024
KANSAS CITY, Mo. — Another vehicle has been stolen from the parking lot of the Ronald McDonald House Charities campus on Cherry Street.
The theft comes just five days after another family had their car stolen from a parking lot on the campus as well.
Denise Johnson went out to clean her 2014 Kia Optima on Thursday morning to find it missing.
“I was in shock. I think I still am in shock,” she said. “I just find it so hard to believe that somebody would do that in a place like this.”
She filed a report with the Kansas City Police Department.
CEO Tami Greenberg, at Ronald McDonald House Charities of Kansas City, said it is “disheartening to see the bad guys targeting vulnerable families. Those families do not need anything else to worry about, they’re already going through some of the hardest days of their entire lives and so when something like this happens, it’s just so deeply unfair.”
She said the organization would increase security around their campus and have more security officers on patrol, specifically at night.
Just before speaking to FOX4, Chris Johnson, Denise’s husband, received a call telling him that the vehicle had been found.
“They said it was off of highway 350 near Lee’s Summit,” he said. “I asked them if it was drivable, and they said no, probably not.”
He was told the car sustained significant damage to the ignition, had a flat tire and had been involved in an accident.
“All of the families here are here for a reason, we’re here to support our kids and help them get healthy again,” Denise said. “It’s just sad that someone would do such a thing.”
The Johnsons are staying at Ronald McDonald house while their 9-year-old son, Ethan receives treatment at Children’s Mercy Hospital.
Ethan was diagnosed with Acute Myeloid Leukemia at the age of 5. He has had two bouts with cancer and has received two bone marrow transplants in the past 4 years.
Denise said that this time,” he came in with quite a few illnesses and we’ve been here for about a month now.”
She has been documenting Ethan’s medical progress on Facebook, where friends and loved ones have offered words of support and donations to the families GoFundMe page.
Denise is expecting Ethan to be released from the hospital in the next few weeks. They’re not sure what will happen with the car and are going to inspect it Friday morning.
“[Chris] is pretty handy so maybe he can get it running again but as for right now, it puts us in a bad position, it was our only running vehicle. We’ll have to figure something out, I really don’t know, to be honest.”