Lawyer covers donations after group's charity funds robbed

CHICAGO (WLS) -- A good Samaritan has come to the rescue of an amateur theater group that was robbed while fundraising for charity.

At Hanna Sacks Bais Yaakov High School in the city's Northwest Side, Chania Belsky is still reeling from what happened Monday night at the conclusion of the Chicago Women's Charity Players production of "The Music Man."

"I put the lock boxes in my car to take them to count them, I stopped here at school for just a few minutes, I came back outside and I saw that my car was broken into all the lock boxes were gone, my purse was gone," Belsky, treasurer of the all-female troupe, said. "Yeah it was pretty devastating, I was quite upset, I was crying hysterically."

The show took three months to produce and enjoyed an audience of 700 women Sunday night at the Athaneum Theatre in the city's Southport neighborhood. The goal was to net $40,000 over two shows on Sunday and Monday for the Libeneau Foundation, which houses Jewish adults with disabilities.

The troupe had overcome many challenges mounting a musical for an Orthodox Jewish community.

"A lot of our performers are Orthodox Jewish women and within the confines of the religion, they do not sing in front of men," said Mandy Bacharach, the show's producer.

Having heard about what happened, real estate lawyer Robert Lattas stepped in. He called Belsky and pledged $3,000 to cover what was stolen.

"I mean, this is what you should be doing, you know as an attorney they teach you in law school to give back on a pro bono level," Lattas said. "So it isn't just providing services to people for free, it's also providing financial support to organizations that need it."

"Maybe this was all meant from God and this was a way to raise money in a strange way, but it is all good," Belsky said.

Chicago police say they are investigating the incident and they know that someone tried to use Belsky's credit card Wednesday.