Elk Grove Students Raising Money For Defibrillator Get Tough Lesson In Theft

ELK GROVE (CBS13) - They were trying to save lives and honor a beloved secretary, but now some Elk Grove students are learning a tough lesson after being hit by thieves.

It's not a word you'd expect a sixth grader to know, but students at John Ehrhardt Elementary in Elk Grove learned about defibrillators the hard way after their beloved secretary died in December.

"She was really nice and whenever someone would come into the office with a question she would always stop what she was doing, and nothing was too small to help out," said one student.

So 30 kids decided they would raise money to buy a defibrillator in honor of the late Lorrie Otten to help save lives if there was an emergency on campus.

It was a good deed and a good lesson for students, until they were forced to learn another lesson: thieves don't mind stealing from kids.

"The door was open and some of the supplies were spilling out," said a teacher.

Over the weekend someone broke into the shed where kids kept the school supplies they were selling to raise $1,400 to buy the defibrillator.

"We worked really hard, and right when we heard it was stolen and taken, it was opened and everything. We just were devastated by the news," said another student.

Kids can only imagine the type of person who would do such a thing.

"Maybe people who dropped out of school have nothing to do but steal; yeah a person like that," said sixth grader Kenneth Woods.

Woods says the theft has taught him yet another valuable lesson.

"Stay in school and you won't end up stealing from kids," said Woods.

And the lessons keep coming for these kids. The latest one is perseverance. They came up with another way to raise the money.