Thieves steal thousands of dollars in cancer fundraiser money

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Some heartless thieves stole thousands of dollars that were meant to help a Westland woman battling breast cancer. The crooks allegedly cased the crowd at a fundraiser, waiting to strike. 

Months after a stage 3 breast cancer diagnosis and weeks after a double mastectomy, the cancer is taking a physical toll on Starr Young - and a financial one her husband who's now working part time because of her care. 

“All of our bills are due; we're behind on bills. It's just one thing after another, it just piles up,” Starr says.

“We don’t’ stop. I’m trying to still keep a family and a home working two days a week,” says her husband, Sean Hanchett.

“The little ones don’t understand. The older ones do, so, it’s tough,” Starr says. “You’re a mom, you have no choice. You do it, you push through even on my sick days."

Her “Starr Strong” support group rallied together and organized a fundraiser Saturday night at the Eagles Club in Lincoln Park.

“I put a big smile on my face, it was really cool. It was very overwhelming. I cried. I just felt the love,” Starr says. But that smile turned to tears. The safe with $7,000 in donations was stolen right from their car as the event came to an end. That's seven months of their rent they wouldn't have had to worry about. 

Before anyone could react, the heartless thieves had her husband’s locked truck pried open and the safe loaded into their car.

“We finally had some relief where we could breathe, I don’t even know a word for somebody like this,” Sean says.

“They only hit our car, so, they watched us. They seen [sic] us go to our car a couple times; they knew," Starr says.

There is surveillance video of the thieves that has not yet been released to FOX 2. Starr says the cowards were in an older white or gray Escalade but no one got a look at who was inside.  

“Guess they needed the money more than we did, who knows. They got lucky, probably felt like they were hitting the lottery,” Starr says.

They were able to salvage some money from the fundraiser, but the bulk of it is gone. 

“This benefit was to stop me not be stressed and it's just heartbreaking,” Starr says.

A family friend of Starr’s set up a GoFundMe account to hopefully recoup some of the money they lost. If you'd like to make a donation to the family, you can do so online here