True charity for desperate thief

The theft of a baby’s blanket has revealed the hardship and the heart of the Westport community.

The blanket and children’s clothes were stolen from Sala Ioane’s washing line last week.

Rather than calling the police, Ioane made a poignant plea online for the return of the only keepsake she had of her baby Anthony, who died at 11 days old in 2008. Not only did Ioane not report the theft she also urged the person to come back and take more.

The blanket came back and with it a letter revealing the reasons for the theft.

Ioane only recently returned home from surgery in Auckland for an ectopic pregnancy. One night soon after her return, she hung the clothes and blanket in her carport to dry. The next morning she woke up to find they had vanished.

Ioane posted on social media about the stolen items in the hope the person who took them would read it. She had no intention of reporting or hurting the thief, but simply wanted to know if the person was okay and whether they had children who needed warm clothing so she could help.

“I can’t think of any reason why you would need to steal kids’ blankets and warm clothes unless you were in some kind of strife . . . Please contact me, I have plenty more . . . Just return the blue one. It was my son’s blanket and the only one I have [from] him before he passed.”

Ioane put three boxes of spare blankets and clothes outside her door. That night the blanket was returned, with a letter, and the boxes went.

The writer told Ioane she was in a time of hardship. She had been walking by and saw Ioane hanging out the items.

“[The woman] said in the letter she was in an abusive relationship and her partner had taken everything including her kids’ clothes, and money from her kids’ piggy-bank.”

Ioane said she “broke down” at the thought someone needed to steal to keep their children warm.

She said she understood hardship well, and there were times in her life where she might have “lashed out in anger”.

“I could have made the situation worse . . . or changed it completely . . . I chose to change it completely.”

Before moving to Westport, lack of employment forced her and her fiance, Joshua Edwards, to live in a caravan. During that time Ioane’s parents housed her daughters, aged 10 and 11.

“We understood all too well what it was like to struggle.”

Ioane said her own hardship had strengthened her empathy. “I felt for her,” she said. Ioane and her family moved to Westport in January and she now works for a local shuttle company.

“I absolutely love it here. When you’re a city girl and you come to a small town that just knows how to slow time down it’s pretty awesome . . . and the people have been amazing, we’ve been so welcomed.”

Ioane said she she was not a perfect person herself “just a mother who can relate to real struggle and know it all too well”.

— Westport News