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<\/p>\nA family\u2019s truck and Christmas gifts were stolen and when SAPD found it abandoned, what was left behind in the backseat left them stunned \u2014 and full of faith.<\/p>\n
SAN ANTONIO \u2014 What started as a joyful afternoon of Christmas shopping quickly turned into a nightmare for Justin Charo and his sister.<\/p>\n
In just about 30 minutes, their truck was stolen \u2014 along with hundreds of dollars\u2019 worth of Christmas gifts \u2014 from the parking lot of an Academy Sports + Outdoors store at Potranco Village on the city\u2019s West Side.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe sun was out. It was really nice, and we took off,\u201d Charo said, describing the start of their Thursday afternoon.<\/p>\n
Charo said he and his sister spent the day visiting several stores to get a head start on shopping ahead of a family gift exchange planned for Saturday.<\/p>\n
\u201cThat\u2019s where we decided to do our shopping there, our last bit of shopping,\u201d he said of Academy.<\/p>\n
They went inside around 1:30 p.m. and were only gone about 30 minutes. When they came back out, the truck was gone.<\/p>\n
\u201cI walked out and I noticed that the truck was missing,\u201d Charo said. \u201cI was looking all around and I couldn\u2019t find it. I was like, ‘I thought I left it right there?’ Then I looked at my sister and said, \u2018I think the truck\u2019s missing. I think it just got stolen.\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n
The realization was overwhelming.<\/p>\n
\u201cMy truck\u2019s missing. How am I gonna get home? What am I gonna do?\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
Charo immediately called police to report the theft around 1:45 p.m.<\/p>\n
Hours later, between 5 and 6 p.m., he received a call that brought relief: officers had found his Chevrolet Silverado abandoned on the East Side, near 142 Stolnet St. and South WW White.<\/p>\n
\u201cAs soon as that call ended I was like, \u2018Yes!\u2019 I was so excited,\u201d Charo said.<\/p>\n
A neighbor in the area reported the truck after noticing it had been sitting there for some time and did not belong to anyone in the neighborhood.<\/p>\n
Charo said truck was parked along the side of a house with its doors open, but it was still drivable.<\/p>\n
\u201cWith the truck, all they did was just take off the light bar,\u201d he said. \u201cOther than that the truck is good and ready to go.\u201d<\/p>\n
But inside, the family discovered their Christmas had been taken.<\/p>\n
\u201cOf course they took all the gifts and stuff,\u201d Charo said.<\/p>\n
His sister\u2019s purse was also missing. But in the backseat, something from inside that purse had been deliberately left behind.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe only thing they left behind was this Bible,\u201d Charo said.<\/p>\n
Inside the Bible were his sister\u2019s identification and credit cards \u2014 untouched.<\/p>\n
\n <\/p>\n
Charo said the moment felt like more than coincidence.<\/p>\n
\u201cOne thing they didn\u2019t take was our faith, how good God has been towards us,\u201d he said. \u201cGod is watching. He\u2019s watching everything. You reap what you sow.\u201d<\/p>\n
While the family has not yet been able to replace the stolen gifts, Charo said he was able to recover and replace his vehicle title, which had also been taken.<\/p>\n
For now, he\u2019s focused on what matters most.<\/p>\n
\u201cI\u2019m just really glad me and my sister are safe,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
Charo said he hopes sharing his story will encourage others to take extra precautions, like using tracking devices or added security.<\/p>\n
\u201cGet an Apple AirTag, maybe a kill switch for the truck so it could be a little more safer,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
Despite what happened, the family says they do not wish harm on whoever took their truck.<\/p>\n
\u201cI don\u2019t wish bad upon anybody,\u201d Charo said. \u201cI hope they can learn from this and they can find a way to change their lives doing something good, something better.\u201d<\/p>\n
The theft remains under investigation. Anyone with information is urged to contact San Antonio police.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"A family\u2019s truck and Christmas gifts were stolen and when SAPD found it abandoned, what was left behind…\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":459359,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5133],"tags":[5229,7202,7203,358,3187,67,586,132,5230,68,2969],"class_list":{"0":"post-459358","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-san-antonio","8":"tag-america","9":"tag-san-antonio","10":"tag-sanantonio","11":"tag-texas","12":"tag-tx","13":"tag-united-states","14":"tag-united-states-of-america","15":"tag-unitedstates","16":"tag-unitedstatesofamerica","17":"tag-us","18":"tag-usa"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@us\/115750240060751757","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/459358","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=459358"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/459358\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/459359"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=459358"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=459358"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=459358"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}