Lt. Jay Baker, spokesman for the Cherokee County Sheriff’s Office, said approximately nine flags worth about $40 each were stolen from locations including two from Running Deer Parkway, two from Towne Lake Hills South Drive, two from Towne Lake Parkway near Wendy’s and another near Chick-fil-A, one from Victoria Road and one from Township Drive.
Baker said the Towne Lake Optimist Club, who sponsored the fundraiser, reported the missing flags Monday.
“The flags and poles were taken overnight between the second and third of September and investigators have very little information to follow up on,” Baker said.
Unfortunately, this isn’t the first time the flags have been stolen from the group, according to the program’s chairman.
Marvin Glanzer, chairman of the flag program, said businesses and residents purchase the flags to display on their properties and 100 percent of the funds raised are given to various organizations and programs that help needy children, including the Boys & Girls Club and YMCA.
On July 4, a couple of the flags were stolen but the group dismissed it, Glanzer said. After nine were taken during Labor Day weekend, Glanzer said he and the club decided they needed to take action.
“From a financial standpoint, the loss is huge to the club,” Glanzer said. “It’s taking money away from youth that really, really, really need it.”
Custom-made by the Optimist Club, each of the 200 flags they put out for patriotic holidays are 3-foot by 5-foot and on a 10-foot-tall metal pole. In total, the cost of the nine flags stolen is about $360, Baker said.
Club President Matt Halloran said those wishing to return the flags can put them back where they were previously located and members will gladly retrieve them.
Anyone with any information about the thefts or the flags is urged to contact investigators at (770) 928-0239.
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