UPDATE DEC. 12: Walmart says that it will give Foster Kinship new gift cards in the amount of $1,500.
ORIGINAL STORY
A local nonprofit organization feels ripped off .
Foster Kinship works to make better lives for children raised by family members other than their parents.
Sometimes these types of relationships can cause a financial burden on family members, especially around Christmas time.
Foster Kinship works to provide Christmas presents for as many kids as possible!
After buying gifts for 300 children, Foster Kinship received another donation from another local non-profit organization. The donation was three Walmart gift cards worth $1,500; enough money to buy gifts for 50 more children.
"We had four carts full of Christmas gifts for these kids and so we loaded up the carts...excited....all in good spirit...and then come to find out, there was no money on the cards," said Foster Kinship Family Outreach Program Manager Anntesha Chesterton.
The Walmart store manager explained to them all three gifts cards were zeroed out, potentially online. The women didn't understand how this could be possible since they just received the gift cards a couple days prior and the scratch off pin number was still intact.
"This is a nightmare," said Executive Director Ali Caliendo.
Chesterton and Caliendo say the Walmart manager told them this is a popular scam and that there's nothing they could do.
"Someone has got to do something and I would really hope that they would look at what happened and say here's the $1,500...go purchase those gifts," said Caliendo. "That would be ideal."
13 Action News talked with a spokesperson with Walmart. He tells us they are still working to determine exactly what happened before making the decision to reimburse the organization.
We will update this story when we receive an answer.
In the mean time, if you want to help Foster Kinship purchase those Christmas gifts they had to put back, feel free to drop off a donation or a new gift at their office.
