On December 14, 2013, 19-year-old Adam Lanza allegedly shot to death 26 people (20 first-graders and 6 teachers) at Sandy Hook Elementary School in Newtown, Connecticut, after which he allegedly shot himself.
That day, parents of the school’s students were sent to the volunteer fire station next to the school, presumably so that they wouldn’t be in the way of the police and first responders who had converged on the school.
A day after the massacre, on Dec. 15, an anonymous man in North Carolina donated 26 Christmas trees in memory of the 26 victims.
As James Nye reports for the Daily Mail, Dec. 15, 2013, while watching the media’s TV coverage of the shooting, the anonymous benefactor “was moved” to donate the trees when he saw an advertisement for a Christmas tree sale at the fire department.
At around 3 p.m. on Dec. 15, “firefighters began unloading the 26 trees and placed them out down the road in a line . . . leading towards the tragic school.”
“Women and children helping out at the fire station” decorated “the five-foot trees.”
Victoria Stein, 17, who arrived from Greenwich, Connecticut to pay respect to the dead children and staff of the school, said, “This is a wonderful gesture, it will help all those who have been touched around the world by the outrage. We thought our state was safe, we thought that this could never happen here. For the authorities here to do this has been amazing.”
Newtown resident Daniel Brown came to lay a wreath and was also touched by the Christmas gesture, “We felt the need to come here with our children and this is a wonderful way to honor the young children who died.”
Isn’t that moving? And wasn’t it thoughtful and generous of that anonymous North Carolina man to donate the 26 Christmas trees to remember the 26 victims?
There’s just one thing wrong.
The Christmas trees were already at the fire station BEFORE the anonymous N.C. man donated them.
You may say: “Well, of course the trees were at the fire station before the anonymous man donated them because – DUH! – the station was planning to have a Christmas tree sale!”
There’s just one other thing wrong.
The Sandy Hook fire station had EXACTLY 26 Christmas trees the day before the anonymous donor so generously donated 26 Christmas trees to remember the 26 victims.
Remember the yellow circle in the top right of the pic of the Sandy Hook fire station at the beginning of this post?
Here’s an expanded and closer-up shot of the yellow circle — a screenshot I took from the aerial footage of the fire station on the day of the massacre, Dec. 14, 2013, showing two rows of cut Christmas trees “hidden” behind the fire station.
Let’s count the Christmas trees!
I have 26. What about you? (Click the pic below to enlarge)