Salvation Army And BAMA Thrift Store Beware of Bama Thrift Store and Salvation Army!! Bolivar Missouri

In Bolivar our Salvation Army also has a thrift store named Bama Thrift Store. The two are ran by the same people. I know some one that works there. He manages the Bama Store and also works at the Salvation Army. I have known this person for roughly three years. He lives in our neighborhood. He recieves SS income and brags about how he gets paid "under the table" $250 dollars a week for working at Salvation Army. Since he manages the thrift store he will tell you how he gets first pick of anything that comes in that store. And constantly brings home things from there. He brings home furniture, tvs, computers, chainsaws that were donated after the ice storm, clothes, tools, knives, anything that has any value goes to his house. He is very proud of this fact. And even hands out the stolen stuff in the neighborhood. He also sits around and brags about driving the salvation army truck and drinking and doing drugs. He says the salvation army knows that he does this and even buys him alcohol and they have no problem with his drinking and driving in the Salvation army truck.

He brags about having the keys to the warehouse where he goes up every weekend after hours and helps himself. He even went up one night just to get brownie mix and toilet paper. He takes cases of food. I have seen him with cases of bacon, soda, mac and cheese, vegetables, ice cream, frozen pizzas, etc.

After the ice storm we went without electric for almost 2 weeks. The salvation army was handing out Meals ready to eat to the people with no electric. He took case after case after case of these meals and brags how he has enough to last him for 3 years in case something happens again. He has 3 deep freezers that are completely full of food. Including a lot of deer burger that was donated by the share your harvest program.

He picks up dog food and clothing from our local walmart on weekly basis and will tell you he doesnt know the last time that he had to pay for dog food. He says the salvation army owes him and that is the way they are repaying him. He also picks up the food from share your harvest in springfield and goes through it and brings box after box of this home before it ever makes it to the Salvation Army.

He also has community service workers that have to do community service hours such as people who are on probation or parole or have been in trouble. He has made these workers work at his house. He has bragged to us how he made these people clean his yard, till up a garden, do plumbing and repair work, etc. He will tell you those are his slaves and they will do as he says or they will go to jail. He also says that there is no way of the salvation army finding out about this as he is the manager and keeps track of the hours and it dont matter what they are doing as they are doing the hours. These people have even been working at his house on weekends when the salvation army is not open.

He contacted diffrent business in the community and he had "drawing" for people that shopped there. He got a gift basket for the local movie store which included candy, popcorn, free rentals, etc. He kept it for himself. He often trades things he has taken from the store for diffrent things he thinks he needs.

He has so many stolen things from there at his house he went and bought a separete storage building to put some of it in. He complains about mice and his dog get into the cases of food and ends up burning alot of it because of this.

Around Christmas time I seen a lady drop off a bunch of gifts for a family that was adopted for christmas at the bama store because the salvation army had already closed. I watched him open the gifts and reseal them to see what was in the gifts and later that evening he was bragging about the brand new remote controlled car he had gotten that day. I watched another man drop off a bunch of christmas lights and christmas items to be sold right before christmas and these were all still in the box new. They never even made it to the floor he took them all and put them behind the desk and as soon as the guy left put them in his truck. I asked him what he was going to do with them because we live in the rural part of Bolivar and he told me that it didnt matter if people could see them or not he was going to hang them outside anyway. He ended up having the guy doing community service that was cleaning his yard up burn them.

I have watched him take money out of the cash register for his own use. He uses this money mostly to buy drugs or beer. He has also used it to take him and his mom to play bingo. One occasion he used it to buy KFC.

He has taken money out of the kettles at christmas time because that was payback for him standing in the cold ringing the bell. That same year he stole a bunch of toys from the share your christmas program and passed them out to the kids in the neighborhood. He even gave his granddaughters toys that live out of state.

I honestly think that there is no way he could be doing all this and the Salvation army not know what is going on. I think that he is not the only one involved that maybe he is the only one that likes to brag about it. I know if you ever go to the salvation army to ask for help they never have funds and are always low on food. But he brags about how they have paid his truck payment for him. And not the salvation army truck eithor his own truck that he doesnt drive because the salvation army has given them one of their own vehicles.

It truly disgust me that so many people could use help and get turned away when they truly need it and there would be so much more money and food and everything else if it were not for people like this. It is very sad that in this community inparticular so many people have lost their jobs and need help and are unable to recieve it.

Ijustcantbelieveit
bolivar, Missouri
U.S.A.