LESSLIE -- Her name is Haley, and she smiles all the time. She's 27, and she has had cerebral palsy all her life. She still smiles.
Haley can't talk much, but she sure can smile. She smiles when she's outside in the good weather sitting in her golf cart waving at cars.
“Bye-bye,” Haley calls the golf cart.
Haley calls it that because she uses the cart to drive around a circle worn in the yard, worn from grass into dirt from the endless ovals of joy. Her own little Daytona. The cart lets Haley go bye-bye countless times a day.
She smiles when the cars slow down and the drivers wave back and have a better day than any ever thought they might have because Haley is so nice that she would smile and wave to strangers.
But there are fewer smiles out on Neely Store Road the past few days. Haley can't ride the golf cart out to near the road and sit there, wave and smile, because somebody stole that golf cart. The Grinch took that golf cart: Haley's last name is Christmas.
The independence of a woman who never stops smiling went bye-bye.
“They stole her soul,” said Paul Christmas, Haley's father.
Paul Christmas is not just any father. For 35 years, he has worked at the Bowater paper mill. But for the past 21 years, he has been a reserve police officer.
He worked for the city of Rock Hill, the York County Sheriff's Office and the town of Fort Lawn in Chester County. Now, he works with the Chester County Sheriff's Office. He's helped thousands.
Years ago, Paul Christmas worked with Marvin Brown, who runs York County's drug unit. Brown in all these years has been punched, hit and smacked. He's locked up people who sell dope to schoolchildren. He has seen all ranges of degenerate drug dealers do the most rotten things. I asked Marvin Brown if anything he ever heard in crime matched up to somebody stealing a golf cart from a disabled person.
Marvin Brown said, “I can't think of anything worse.”
And that thief took that golf cart of Haley's from about 30 feet away from Paul Christmas' police car. Right next to the garage, with all kinds of other stuff nearby that was not stolen.
“It was parked right there where it always is,” Christmas said.
Paul Christmas, just like anybody else has to do, called the cops, and a York County deputy came to the house and filed a police report. He is being treated like any other crime victim, police said. Detectives are investigating, but so far, the cart and the culprit haven't been found, said Capt. Jerry Hoffman.
Paul Christmas estimated the value of the cart at $3,000. It cost more than $5,000 new a few years ago and had a special seat and roof put on so Haley and a friend could ride and sit and wave. If the cart was used for yard work, he could file an insurance claim. But the cart's only role is to make a 27-year-old lady happy.
“The money isn't the thing, it's that somebody would take it,” Paul Christmas said. “She loves to ride that cart.”
The theft happened sometime between dark Nov. 4 and the next afternoon when Paul Christmas noticed it was missing.
“Haley knew it was missing, too, knew it wasn't there for her to ride on,” he said.
In the last few days, the Christmas family has looked for the cart. Nothing.
“I've actually prayed for whoever did this, and I know Haley has, too,” Paul Christmas said.
“I hope they bring it back on their own. Haley, she's got no hard feelings.”
Haley's smile still is there. Even when somebody took the one thing in her life that she smiles the most about.
WANT TO HELP?
Anyone with information about Haley Christmas' stolen golf cart can call York County CrimeStoppers at 877-409-4321.
Andrew Dys 803-329-4065 adys@heraldonline.com
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