One thief's ugly act of stealing money from Sechelt's Ecko Aleck while she tended to her premature baby at Lions Gate Hospital has turned into a beautiful thing, thanks to a caring off-Coast community.
Aleck has been at the Lower Mainland hospital since she gave birth to her baby, Luka Kellen Feschuk, on March 27. She was just 33 weeks along in her pregnancy when Luka decided to make his appearance.
The premature baby boy was delivered at St. Mary's Hospital, but both baby and mom were airlifted to Lions Gate in North Vancouver where better premature baby care could be offered.
Aleck was alone in her hospital room on April 1 when she decided to hide her wallet in her bedside cupboard and go spend time with baby Luka who was in a 24-hour care nursery room in another part of the hospital.
Aleck explained that her partner, Kellen Feschuk, had visited the day before to give the new mom $300 cash to live off, since it was evident she would soon be discharged and would need to stay in Vancouver to be close to Luka.
"Being alone, I would clean up my room every time before I left to go to the nursery, and I had put my wallet behind my pads and breast pads in a cupboard beside my bed," Aleck said.
"I was hiding it and I had my keys and my phone on me because the thought had crossed my mind that someone might steal my things but I didn't really think it would happen to me."
When she returned to her room about an hour later, it was obvious a thief had been there.
"All my medical supplies, my pads and breast pads were all over the floor, and my wallet was gone," she said.
Frantic, she went to the nurses to ask if they had seen anything and inquired about possible video surveillance that could point to the perpetrator.
"One of the nurses heard me crying and overheard what had just happened and she went straight to the bathrooms to look in the garbage and she found my wallet, but the money that Kellen had left me was gone," Aleck said.
Hospital workers reviewed surveillance tape that showed an unidentified man entering and leaving Aleck's room.
The image was given to the police and released to the media and soon the local TV news station aired Aleck's story. A few Lower Mainland papers also ran stories about Aleck's ordeal.
As soon as the public heard about the theft, donations to replace the stolen money started coming in. Anonymous donations came in to the hospital and the local police station. Givers even contacted Aleck through Facebook to ask how they could transfer funds to her.
"Suddenly it seemed all of the Lower Mainland wanted to help," she said.
She was touched and taken aback by the community's rallying around her.
"I mean you totally expect that in the community we come from, but having people drop in to the hospital determined to leave me something and help me out however they could? I was just left completely speechless," Aleck said. "It just tugged at my heart strings to have that many people wanting to help."
Representatives from the Squamish First Nation came to the hospital to honour Aleck with a song and ceremonial blanket as well as a financial donation.
The Sechelt First Nation also gave to Aleck.
To date more than $2,300 has been donated to Aleck and she is "overwhelmed with emotion," at the community's generosity.
"From the bottom of my heart I just want to thank everybody so much for balancing the good and the bad. It really restored my faith and I don't even know how to say thank you enough," Aleck said.
She plans to use some of the donated money to stay in Vancouver to be close to Luka, donate some money back to the nursery that Luka is staying at and save the rest for Luka's future.
She's also documenting all the donations and saving news clippings so one day she can show her son how much he was loved, right from the start.
"He's going to have quite a story," Aleck said.
Luka is now off oxygen and breathing on his own. Aleck noted that he is doing really well, but she is unsure when he might be released from the hospital.
Police are still trying to track down the thief that entered Aleck's room. So far there have been many tips but no arrest has been made.
