Bride devastated by wedding day thief

KELOWNA – Thieves ruined a Kelowna bride’s special day by robbing her guests and stealing cards with cash inside meant for the couple’s honeymoon.

Natasha and Aaron Young were tying the knot on July 5 at the Benvoulin Heritage Church when the crooks struck.

While the bride and groom were cutting the cake, guests had money stolen from their wallets, according to Natasha’s mom Sharon Sharkey.

To add insult to injury, the thieves grabbed a bunch of wedding cards.

Sharkey says the couple had requested no presents and instead asked for some cash to help with the cost of their honeymoon. Many of the stolen cards contained cash.

Her daughter didn’t want to go public with her story but “she wants to make sure no one else has to go through this,” Sharkey says. “We are trying to make something terrible into something good.”

The couple plans to report the crime to the RCMP when they get back to Kelowna on Wednesday. They weren’t aware of the scope of the theft until they were well into their trip.

Holding back tears as she negotiates the shelves and puzzled looks from shoppers at Chapters, Sharkey says instead of staying in hotels on their trip along the Oregon coast they newly weds have been sleeping on a mattress in a SUV.

“I don’t understand how anyone could do this.”

Natasha, who is five months pregnant, belongs to a group called Mamas for Mamas. One of the members, Lisa Redl, has set up a fundraising page at Indie Gogo saying, "I would really like to help restore this couple's faith in people."

A Facebook page has also been created.

To contact the reporter for this story, email Howard Alexander at halexander@infotelnews.ca or call 250-491-0331. To contact the editor, email mjones@infotelnews.ca or call 250-718-2724.