Donation Box Stolen Christmas Night From Home's Holiday Display

TINLEY PARK, IL — About $1,000 was believed stolen Christmas night from a donation box collecting money for a nonprofit group in front of a Tinley Park house known for its elaborate holiday lights, the homeowner said. Dominic Kowalczyk has been decorating his home for the holidays for more than 20 years, and he has used the attention that has drawn to raise money for charity. This is the first time his yard box, which was collecting donations for Tinley Park's Together We Cope, has been stolen from his property in the five years he's been accepting contributions, he told Patch on Thursday.

Kowalczyk had last seen the donation box at around 8:30 p.m. Dec. 25, while he was in front of his home, 17321 Avon Lane, chatting with friends who were over for a family Christmas party. When he returned outside at around 10 p.m. to gather the money from the day, the box had been taken, he said.

Normally, the box is chained down in front of the house. But because of the party and the steady flow of people driving by to look at his lights Christmas night, he didn't do that for the short time he wasn't outside, he said. Although he doesn't know the exact amount of money in the box when it was stolen, he estimates it was around $1,000 thanks to a few large donations that night from friends and the increased visitor traffic of Christmas Day (admirers of Kowalczyk's holiday lights are able to drive up and drop contributions into the box without getting out of their cars).

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Kowalczyk said he reported the theft to Tinely Park police, but so far, they haven't been able to find out who took the box. The home doesn't have any outdoor security cameras, and even if he did, police told him that they would have needed to be aimed just right in order to capture a car's license plate. All of the flashing lights from the holiday decorations and the amount of people driving by also would have made identifying suspects in a video difficult, he said.

The theft of the box hasn't stopped Kowalczyk from continuing his fundraising efforts, though. He put out a new box Wednesday, but this time he's taken additional measures to secure it, including using a thicker chain that's anchored four feet into the ground.

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"If that doesnt' work, I don't know what more I have to do," he said about preventing a repeat theft.

All the money Kowalczyk collects in the donation box goes to Together We Cope. After the first year using his Christmas display as a fundraiser, Kowalczyk says he started a routine before the holidays of setting a financial goal he wants to reach that season. If donations come up short of that, he makes up the reminder with a contribution in the name of the Tinley Park construction company he owns, Construction Concepts.

He raised a little more than $1,500 in the first year, and the totals have been larger and larger each year since then. Despite the theft, he still plans to donate $10,000 to Together We Cope, which provides food, shelter, clothing and other assistance to people in crisis.

Over the years, Kowalczyk's displays, which incorporate hundreds of thousands of lights and can take up to 500 hours to assemble, have garnered local and national attention. In 2013, the home was featured on ABC's "Great Light Fight."

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Kowalczyk's lights will remain up through Jan. 1, and people will still be able to make drive-by donations during that time. Anyone who can't get out to see the lights but would still like to donate to Together We Cope through Kowalczyk's efforts can contact him via email at dominic@constructionconceptsofil.com to find out how to make a contribution through PayPal.

Anyone with information about the theft of the donation box should call Tinley Park police at 708-444-5300.

Dominic Kowalczyk's 2017 holiday lights display at his Tinley Park home, 17321 Avon Lane. (Photo by Dominic Kowalczyk)