BROOKLYN, Ohio — Back in June, we first introduced you to Megan Malcolm of Brooklyn. She and her fiancé had a pair of Kia vehicles stolen in less than 24 hours.
Both of the cars were damaged as a result of the thefts, with only one currently in the couple's possession. Now, Megan Malcolm is asking for help from the community as the family tries to pick themselves back up.
How did this all happen? On a Friday evening in June, the couple stopped by Giant Eagle to pick up snacks, parking her 2022 Kia Sportage in the lot before heading inside. When they came out, the Sportage was gone.
The couple went back inside, speaking with an officer in the store and making out a police report for the stolen car with Brooklyn police, who gave them a ride home. Among the items that were stolen were the car keys for the vehicle belonging to Malcolm's fiancé, a 2022 Kia Forte. Her house keys and documents that listed their address were also in the car when it was stolen.
That very night, the Forte was taken from their driveway.
"It's about 1:30 in the morning, and I mean, we didn't even hear these guys come down our driveway, open our gate, anything," she said. "We just heard the car kind of just fly down the driveway, and my fiancé's car was gone."
While police found his damaged car, many important items were missing.
"We are expecting in December, and we both had a ton of baby clothes, maternity clothes," Malcolm told 3News. "We had stuff for the baby's room — sounds machines, humidifiers, things like that — in our car. We were kind of bargain shopping the previous week for baby stuff. We were super excited about it. All of that stuff was gone."
In addition, a brand new fishing pole — which Malcolm had bought her fiancé to mark his first Father's Day as an expectant dad, was stolen.
This week, Megan Malcolm reached out to 3News to tell us that while her vehicle was recovered on July 1, it has been taken by the Cleveland Division of Police as evidence since it was involved in a string of robberies. Malcolm says the police department will not allow her insurance to come into the lot to estimate the damage done to her Sportage. Meanwhile, her insurance is only covering a rental car for her to use for a few more days.
In their desperation, Megan and her fiancé have created a GoFundMe account to help them make ends meet as they try to handle their everyday expenses, plus prepare for the coming of their baby boy later this year. "We had to take away from our funds for the baby and my (maternity) leaves to be able to get the unexpected things we needed not only to be able to drive my fiance's car again, but for our safety," she explained in the GoFundMe post. "We both are full-time workers, and we have been working hard to prepare our lives for our new baby boy. Due to the investigation our insurance does not want to work with us on a rental so we are going to be put into a bind on how we both will manage to get to work."
If you would like to help Megan and her fiancé, click here.