HASTINGS, Minn., Dec. 19 (UPI) -- Friends have set up a fund for a cancer-stricken Minnesota man who had all his work tools and truck stolen, and was hospitalized with heart problems.
"What a terrible year," Roy Babcock, a single father raising four children in Hastings told the St. Paul (Minn.) Pioneer Press.
Thieves broke in to the man's auto mechanic business -- which was in foreclosure -- and stole about $50,000 in tools, the newspaper reported Monday. He said he had insurance on the business, but not the tools.
"This was not a crime of opportunity, like snatching a purse on a park bench. This was someone who knew I had cancer and the shop was just sitting there," said Babcock.
The theft came months after he was diagnosed with Stage 4 kidney and lung cancer in April. The chemotherapy cause heart valve damage, which hospitalized him for 11 days in August.
Two days before his was discharged, his truck was stolen and found totaled in a field.
"The Christmas tree is up, but there are no presents under it," he told the Pioneer Press.
"I wouldn't make it through this if I didn't have strong religious faith," Babcock said. "I have asked the good Lord: What have I done to deserve this?"
