Dallas church van stolen

A Dallas church offered to host an after-school program for elementary school kids.

It even offered to pick them up from the school with its van, until leaders at Walnut Hill Methodist Church noticed that somebody stole the van.

The church has had the van, a 2002 white Ford 15-passenger van, for 10 years, and it's usually parked at the church.

"At first we thought maybe somebody in the church had just borrowed it, but we had all the sets of keys, so we knew that it had definitely been stolen at that point,” said Alexandra Robinson with the church.

Robinson says the van was supposed to bring the kids from nearby Cigarroa Elementary School.

"And we knew that the only way that the program could be successful is by providing transportation for the kids,” said Robinson.

The theft happened sometime between Sunday afternoon and Tuesday morning.

Dallas police are investigating the theft.

The church doesn't have cameras in the parking lot, so leads are scarce. However, there was a bright spot.

When the Christ Foundry United Methodist Church in Dallas heard about what happened, it quickly showed up with its van to save the day.

Veronica Robles came to pick up her three kids from the after-school program and had a hard time understanding how someone could be so low they would steal from a church and little kids.

"And they're actually doing this program to help children out and now they stole the transportation that the kids had back and forth,” said Robles. “It's sad."

The message to the thieves is to bring the van back to the church’s parking lot -- no questions asked.

The other church will keep lending its van for the after-school program until this church can get a new one.

Robinson says there was a magnetic decal on the side with the church's name and logo, but she assumes removing it was one of the first things the crooks did.