Local Clothing Donation Bins Attract Some Cute and Not-So-Cute Surprises Over the Weekend

Yet one of those incidents will leave people shaking their heads: two men in Shelton, CT, were arrested over the weekend for allegedly stealing donated clothing from a charity bin.

According to police, Joaquin Gonzales and Mardo Pineda drove up in their van to the Kiducation donation bin, located at 898 Bridgeport Avenue in Shelton, and began loading the local clothing donations into the back of the vehicle.

The incident occurred on the night of Saturday, April 11. Police became involved when a witness contacted them around 8 p.m. that evening.

The officers arrived at the scene to find the van stuffed with clothing.

Gonzales, 39, and Pineda, 23, are both New York state residents. They allegedly have nothing to do with the charity.

Gonzales, the driver, did not have a valid driver’s license or an insurance card for his van. He was arrested on charges of sixth-degree larceny, driving without insurance and driving without a license.

Pineda was also charged with sixth-degree larceny.

Both men were released from jail but are due in court on April 27.

Police say that this isn’t the first such crime in the area. Over the past few months, several other local donation bins have been robbed.

Yet this incident wasn’t the only recent strange occurrence around these clothing donation boxes.

In Pennsylvania, a cardboard box was found next to another clothing donation bin, and it turned out to contain a very cute surprise — baby foxes.

A local woman found the box and turned the foxes over to the Pocono Wildlife Rehabilitation and Education Center in Stroudsburg, PA. The five boys (or dogs) and two girls (or vixens) are currently being nursed back to health.

The babies were just 10 days old and only weighed around six ounces each. All were dehydrated but otherwise in good health.

Workers at the center gave the foxes rabies vaccinations and fed them Pedialyte fluids and fox milk, according to the center’s director Katherine Uhler.

The foxes are so young that they aren’t even red yet but brown, with only small white tails.

No crime is suspected in the incident involving the foxes, but the kindness of the people who nursed the animals back to health, and the good Samaritan who found them near the donation bin, goes a little ways in restoring faith in humanity.

The overall cost to nurse the fox cubs back to health and care for them in the coming months is about $1,000. The center plans to release them into the wild in July.