Her granddaughter's surgery was successful and she has her stolen truck back but troubles just keep coming.
By WAVENEY ANN MOORE
Published May 25, 2003
ST. PETERSBURG - Charlene Casey is safely home in North Fort Myers with her daughter and 2-year-old granddaughter.
But the troubles that began in St. Petersburg have followed.
Sure, she's gotten back the truck stolen from the Ronald McDonald House, 401 Seventh Ave. S, where she had been staying during granddaughter Mariah Braniff's heart surgery at All Children's Hospital. And Mariah's recuperation is going well.
Damage to her truck, though, which Ms. Casey needs for her horse and carriage business, is estimated to be about $3,000. And most of the possessions that had been in the vehicle are missing, apparently lost forever. Almost as annoying: She's now entangled in an insurance maze not of her own making.
Reached by telephone Friday morning, Ms. Casey, 45, recited a litany of problems that have resulted from the theft of her black, four-door, four-wheel-drive 2000 F350 Ford diesel truck.
"It's damaged on the tailgate and the rear quarter panels are damaged," she said.
"They scattered papers, everything I had. I did find my checkbooks, but I didn't find my credit cards or driver's license. And the baby's car seat was gone. I had a diamond-cut tool box for the back of the truck and that was gone. It was dirty all over the seats and everything. I really didn't even want to sit in it. It stank inside. You could tell that there were a lot of people in the back seat. They stole all my CDs." Also gone was the blanket she used in her carriage to keep riders warm, she said.
The truck was stolen last Monday night. Ms. Casey, who had driven from North Fort Myers with her daughter, Marcie Braniff, and little Mariah, stopped unpacking the vehicle at the start of an evening thunderstorm. By the time it had subsided, the truck had disappeared. It was recovered the next day in Tampa with a cash drawer in the front.
Lt. Rod Reder of the Hillsborough County Sheriff's Office said the truck might have been used in the burglary of a small grocery store at 1606 North Parsons Ave. in Brandon. A concrete block had been thrown through the store window in a "smash and grab" burglary early Tuesday morning, he said.
Ms. Casey said the Sheriff's Office told her that besides the cash drawer, the truck also had been abandoned with "a bunch of lottery tickets" in it.
For her, money is tight, she said, and she even had to borrow some from her boyfriend's father for the trip to St. Petersburg for Mariah's surgery. On Friday she still didn't know whether the damaged truck could be used to haul the horses for the carriage rides two brides had ordered for their weddings the next day.
Despite her troubles, Ms. Casey spoke of the kindnesses of others. Thursday afternoon a volunteer from Ronald McDonald House took her to get her truck, which had been towed to a mechanic in Tampa. The gas tank of the truck was full, Ms. Casey said, but she doesn't know whom she should thank. Earlier that day, Joe Rosa, who owns three One Stop Auto Service Centers in St. Petersburg, had offered to repair the truck free of charge so she and her family could get home safely. When he learned that she didn't need that type of help, he offered money for gas. During a telephone interview with Neighborhood Times, Rosa said he had been touched by Ms. Casey's predicament and is a grandparent himself.
Mariah was doing well Friday, Ms. Casey said. Friends of the child's mother, Marcie Braniff, had welcomed the toddler home with balloons and cake.
"She has an appointment Thursday with a cardiologist down here," Ms. Casey said.
"She was real happy all the way home, jabbering up a storm."
