The Carol Matheys Center for Children & Families in Oakdale kicked off its summer session last week with a bounce house that featured inflatable pop-ups, a basketball hoop and two separate climbing walls to reach the top of two slides.

Children who attend Carol Matheys Center for Children & Families in Oakdale play in a bounce house on Tuesday, June 11, 2024. (Courtesy of Carol Matheys Center for Children & Families)

The center paid more to rent the Sports Dual-Lane Slide Combo Bouncer from Froggy Hops Inflatable Jumpers for an extra couple of days so the 64 children who attend Carol Matheys would have even more time to play, said Stacie Penn, the center’s executive director.

But when center staff arrived at work at 6 a.m. Wednesday, the 300-pound deflated bounce house was gone.

“We feel pretty violated by it, and the kids were so disappointed by it,” Penn said. “I’ve been here 30 years, and we’ve never had anything like this. It was huge, so it definitely was more than one person. They had to have a truck or a trailer. It wasn’t a random thing. Somebody had planned it, for sure.”

Police say someone stole the $2,200 bounce house and the $150 blower required to inflate it sometime between 8 p.m. Tuesday and 6 a.m. Wednesday. The large metal stakes used to hold the bounce house in the ground were not taken, according to police.

Per the terms of the center’s contract with Froggy’s, Carol Matheys must cover the full cost of the stolen bounce house and blower.

Given the high deductible on the childcare center’s insurance plan, Penn said center officials decided to pay for the bounce house and blower outright rather than submit it to insurance. Center staff were able to raise the amount needed through an online GoFundMe fundraiser.

A rental bounce house was stolen from the Carol Matheys Center for Children & Families in Oakdale sometime late June 11, 2024 or early June 12, 2024.  (Courtesy of GoFundMe)

The fundraiser had raised $2,915 of its $2,500 goal as of Wednesday afternoon; center staff plan to use any extra funds to pay for the installation of a security camera around the entire center. The center’s current security cameras do not cover the back area where the bounce house was located, Penn said.

Center staff have been monitoring Facebook Marketplace to see if someone is selling the Sports Dual-Lane Slide Combo Bouncer online. “I really don’t think they were teenagers,” Penn said. “This took a little more planning. My guess is that this was somebody who was trying to make some money.”

Penn said the theft has led to some difficult conversations with the children, who range in age from 3 to 12.

“They were disappointed, but also really worried because somebody stole it,” she said. “We had to have conversations about ‘Sometimes people do bad things.’ It was a lesson on, ‘That’s why we don’t take things that don’t belong to us.’”

Police said the case remains under investigation. Anyone with information is asked to call 911 or submit a tip at cityprotect.com/agency/oakdalepdmn. Once a crime tip is sent, it will send alerts to police staff.

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