CANTON, Mich. (WXYZ) — Plymouth-Canton Ballet Company is calling on the community for help after their trailer full of precious props was stolen early in the morning.
"The white truck came, backed right up to that spot, they must have sawed it off, hooked up, and drove off. This happened within 5 minutes," Artistic Director of the company June Smith said.
Just a few minutes is all it took for someone to wipe out decades of hard work when they stole a trailer full of "The Nutcracker" props around 3 a.m.
Smith said this comes just three weeks before the company's 40th Anniversary "The Nutcracker" performance.
"I'm sure these things don't mean a lot to the people who took them, but they mean a lot to us," Smith said.
"I mean they make the ballet come together. Without them, the story and the scene doesn't really, it's not able to come to life and the audience isn't able to connect with what we're able to do," company member Sophia Vella said.
"If we don't have props we can't make our story come to life," young company member Brayden Vanbynen said.
Thousands of dollars were put into these pieces, according to volunteer prop designer and dance dad, Nathan Vanbynen.
"How are we going to pay for all of this? Being a non-profit, we only have a bunch of money in the bank and whatever we do make through ticket sales it goes back into paying for the auditorium and programs and stuff like that," Vanbynen said.
He has under a month to rebuild things like a throne, growing Christmas tree, and grandfather clock. All of which are well over 10 ft. tall.
"All of this is really a labor of love and we're really going to have to chip in where we can and make sure we get it done," Vanbynen said.
Smith said that many of the props that were stolen were also sentimental.
"We had a backdrop behind the thrown that a family member had made who has now passed away so, her memory is still in that," Smith said.
The company is asking people in the community to be on the lookout for their trailer and their props.
"If there's anything that they can see as far as props or anything that has been dumped some place," Smith said.
Canton police are investigating and asking the public to keep an eye out for the stolen trailer.
Smith is encouraging anyone looking to help to buy tickets to their show.
They also have a GoFundMe to help offset the cost of materials for new props.
