A missing trailer has been found, but the contents are gone.
According to Capt. Casey Moilanen of the Rochester Police Department, a trailer belonging to the Sertoma 700 Club was stolen between Oct. 25 and Nov. 3.
Becca Sell, president of the Sertoma 700 Club, said the nonprofit organization's trailer was found near Marion Road Southeast, but the gaming equipment – poker and blackjack tables, roulette wheels and other "casino night" gear – was not in it.
Instead, the trailer, which had also been spray painted on the outside, was filled with the belongings of a man who had recently been evicted from his home, Sell said.
"We had to pay $300 for dumping all the junk inside," Sell said.
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Worse, she said, is the gaming equipment, much of it hand-made by members of the nonprofit organization, was only covered by insurance for its original cost, not the cost to replace it. That means the organization lost $26,000 to $30,000, but will only receive $12,000 in replacement costs.
The equipment is used by the Sertoma 700 Club to raise funds by putting on casino nights for business or school parties, and the funds are donated to several children's charities such as buying equipment for hearing-impaired students at Bamber Valley Elementary School or early detection equipment for Olmsted Medical Center.
The organization is running a GoFundMe page to raise the money it would have raised otherwise with casino nights held during the holiday season, Sell said.
"The holiday season is our main casino season," Sell said. "And this was our first year back after the pandemic, but we had to cancel all our events."
