Family Photos Stolen From Wildfire Victims During Benefit Concert
SANTA ROSA (KPIX 5) -- A family that survived the Tubbs Fire in Santa Rosa went to San Francisco for a break, but instead they got their family photos stolen.
Jason Kracht and his wife went to a benefit concert on Thursday night looking for a little breather from life after the wildfires.
Kracht and his wife were among the 40,000 people who packed into AT&T Park for the fire relief concert.
The couple parked near AT&T Park for the concert and when they came out, they found that someone had broken into their car.
Kracht said it was about enjoying some entertainment and "...an evening away from home, whatever home is right now."
Kracht, his wife, 3-year-old daughter and their cat used to live in Santa Rosa's Coffey Park neighborhood. They lost their home in the Tubbs Fire.
"The first thing I noticed was the seat had been folded down I was like, wait a second…that seat was up when I left. I hadn't noticed the broken windows at the time. I was like 'woah' and I scanned and I saw a pile of glass on the ground," Kracht said.
Gone were their computers, containing digital copies of all the photographs that were destroyed when the house burned down.
Not just wedding and vacation photos, pictures of their daughter.
"Pictures that my wife took when we were in the hospital with my daughter for a month and a half during her surgery," Kracht said. That surgery saved his daughter's life.
"My daughter had biliary atresia, which is a collapsing of the bile ducts in the liver. She was diagnosed at four-months-old. Normally that is diagnosed at four weeks," he said.
Reflecting on what's happened these past hours, days and years, Kracht has just one message for the thieves.
"What little we have was stolen and whatever you can do please, please give our memories back," Kracht said.
He is asking that whoever took the laptops, please turn them in to a local police station or to AT&T Park.
He says there were some clothes, cash & checks stolen from the car as well, but all he really wants are the priceless photos.
