Pastor Wally Staples has a message for whoever walked into the Church of the Nazarene on Wiscasset’s Gardiner Road Friday and took two bags of collected toys that were going to go to families. 

The person didn’t have to steal them, they could have asked and the church would have given them toys — that’s what the church does, Staples said Tuesday.

A Wiscasset police log out Monday states that at 1:51 p.m. Friday, Dec. 18, the church reported that, about an hour earlier, someone had come in and taken two white bags of toys that were collected for kids.

The case remains under investigation; police have no suspects, Chief Troy Cline said Tuesday, Dec. 22.

The missing toys did not mean any children went without. There were many other toys that volunteers had prepared and were preparing for families to pick up that night and at other times, Staples said. Plus the church reached out to groups in Rockport and Damariscotta to help make up for the loss, and those groups came through, Staples said.

The Wiscasset Newspaper was not immediately able to confirm the groups’ names, but Staples greatly appreciated their help. “They bailed us out.”

The toys went missing when volunteers were working downstairs on food that was also going to families; Staples, of Woolwich, and wife Sharon Staples were out gathering more toys, the pastor said. The volunteers heard someone come in, but thought nothing of it at the time, figuring it may have been another volunteer, he said.

When the two bags were later discovered missing, from a spot right near the door, the pastor called the police.

He said police were doubtful that the person who took them would be found. Staples brought the theft up at Sunday’s service, telling the congregation about it and sharing his message that the person didn’t have to do it. But he didn’t dwell on the loss, because the children and adults of the church were putting on a Christmas play and other performances at the service. He didn’t want to take attention away from that, he said.

Asked if the added donations in time for Christmas sent a message as well, Staples said it did: “God replaced 10 times more than what was taken. That to me is the meaning of Christmas.”

He said it would be hard to estimate the value of the missing toys, but that it may have been about $400. In addition to receiving donated toys to pass along to families, the church also buys toys from WalMart and elsewhere to give away, Staples said.

The church has provided toys to about 400 children this Christmas, with some families still picking up theirs in the days before Christmas, Staples said. More families sought help from the church this year since, Family Holiday Wishes, a program for Lincoln County families, didn’t happen, he said.

CLC YMCA in Damariscotta is preparing to start a Holiday Wishes program in 2016, sponsored by Toys for Tots, Y staff have said.