Long Island Cares
says they are deeply troubled after a video of longtime volunteers taking a
joke too far was posted online.
The volunteers
eventually got themselves thrown off private property for their actions.
In the video, it
shows a volunteer who calls himself “Sassy Santa," along with other
volunteers dressed as elves.
They were asking
for donations during the holiday season at a Lake Grove shopping center.
The volunteer can
be heard in the video saying, “Oh, you trick me, I thought you were takin' out
some money for the poor kids who are starving on Long Island.”
He can also be
heard saying, “Come over here and give me something. I hope you get a stomachache.”
The behavior came
as a shock to the Long Island Cares food bank because they tell News 12 they
have worked with the volunteer in the video many times before.
Eventually the
store asked “Sassy Santa” and his elves to pack up, but they didn’t do so immediately.
That led to a
call to the police for the volunteers to leave.
Paule Pachter,
president and CEO of Long Island Cares, told News 12 in a statement, “We
wouldn’t want anyone to think that we don’t vet or value our neighbors who
volunteer to assist the regional food bank in fulfilling our missing at a time
when need continues to increase.”
Long Island Cares
say they asked for the video to be taken down earlier Thursday, but it was
still online as of 9 p.m.