SAN MATEO, Calif. (KRON) – A bus carrying supplies for cancer patients was stolen in San Mateo over President’s Day weekend. Police found the bus a few days later, but the patients are now without their supplies.

Thieves broke in through an emergency hatch, then drove off with the bus, stealing its catalytic converter and almost everything on the bus. Only one bag of wigs was left. Even chemotherapy supplies were stolen. 

“Being a nonprofit, I thought we would be spared, with all the recent crimes going on and cars being stolen, thinking this is something positive… It was devastating,” said Rina Bello, the executive director of Bay Area Cancer Connections. 

San Mateo police found the bus outside of Junipero Serra High school roughly a week later. No one has been arrested.

Bello held back her tears as she showed KRON4 around the bus. She thinks the thieves stole roughly $20,000 in supplies and doesn’t believe there is necessarily a resale market. She says people battling cancer are often isolated and for many of them, the bus was an essential part of the treatment.

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“Many of our clients can’t afford these resources, and not only was our bus damaged, our ability to be out there and bring hope, but now they don’t have the ability to get these resources,” Bello said.

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