Trailer stolen from Jacksonville construction site, halting work on homes for people in recovery

JACKSONVILLE, Ark. – A project nearing completion in Jacksonville has been brought to a stop after a theft at a construction site.

Union Rescue Mission crews say their trailer was stolen from a construction site, taking with it $15,000 worth of materials.

“It’s almost like ripping off a scab from a wound,” Derek Jones said.

Jones is the executive director of Union Rescue Mission working with people who have fought addiction and domestic violence.

In the last two years, he’s spent hours with his team building transitional homes for people in recovery. Work was almost complete until it all came crashing down.

“Somebody decided to come on the property, break the locks off the trailer, connect to it, and haul off our trailer,” Union Rescue Mission President and CEO Keith Medlock said.

Inside the trailer were tools, flooring, windows and other items needed to complete the homes.

Medlock said the loss is somewhere around $15,000 to $17,000, taking away from an organization run almost completely off donations.

“Now money that could be used to take care of our clients and meet their needs, now we have to re-purchase things that were lost in this,” Jones said.

Crews say it’s a setback on money and time, but more importantly, it’s a setback on a new beginning for families.

“That’s probably the hardest part, telling them it’s going to take longer,” Jones said.

It’s another hurdle crews will have to overcome, but it’s one they will continue to push for because of the lives that will change with nails and a slab of wood.

“They didn’t steal from us, they stole from the broken, hurting people that are coming through our doors, looking for hope, looking for help,” Jones said. “They took from them and that’s the hardest part.”

Anyone with information about the trailer’s whereabouts is asked to contact the Jacksonville Police Department.

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