Heartbreak after money raised for Dixmoor youth football team to travel to Florida goes missing
OAK LAWN, Ill. - A setback for young Chicago-area football players as car trouble puts their trip of a lifetime in jeopardy.
"I think that’s the hardest part because they worked so hard," said Constance Lee, mother of two youth football players.
It all started with Lee’s SUV breaking down early Wednesday morning. Inside the armrest of the car was over $1,500 stashed away for her kids to eat and lodge in Florida.
The SUV was towed away. FOX 32 spoke to the tow truck driver who says he only went into the car to get it on the tow truck and get it off, and then he passed the keys to the dealership.
FOX 32 featured the Dixmoor Vikings in a story this week after the team made it to nationals for the first time in 40 years.
Lee’s two kids, 10-year-old Ce’Anna and 12-year-old Joquise, are on the team heading to Florida Friday night to participate in the Pop Warner Super Bowl. Lee’s kids raised a lot of the money themselves.
"They are out on the corner. They were selling to the neighbors, I wrote on the sign, ‘Help us get to Florida,’" said Lee.
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Lee's Hyundai Palisade truck was towed to Happy Hyundai in Oak Lawn. Oak Lawn police were then called to the dealership, and Lee says they questioned the porters, but that was it.
"I don’t know what I am going to do," she said.
The sales manager of the car dealership says the car was searched by the porters, and nothing was found, and there’s nothing more he can do.
The family now has a GoFundMe set up.