A North Ridgeville mom is hoping whoever took a bus stop built for her daughters from her front yard yesterday afternoon will reconsider and return it.
Carrie Adams said the partially-built bus stop was taken sometime Monday between 2 and 3:30 p.m. Her entire extended family spent all weekend building the structure, which she said has a 6-foot by 4-foot floor, one eight-foot wall and three six-foot walls.
Adams said her daughters’ safety is her main concern. She has two girls, Sammantha, 13, and Lilly, 11, in addition to two older children.
“I have two girls,” she said. “It scares me having them stand out on the road, on Center Ridge, waiting for the bus.”
Adams said she lives on a busy portion of the street — 34785 Center Ridge, across from Marc’s — and is worried “someone could slide off the road” while her daughters are standing near it. “We’ve had a lot of accidents in our front yard,” she added.
Adams concedes that because the bus stop was partially built and was beside the road “someone might have thought it was garbage,” but she hopes they’ll return it nonetheless.
Adams and her daughters have erected a large sign in there front yard in an attempt to get the bus stop back. It reads “The bus stop was not garbage. Please return it!” and promises a $100 reward.
She said it would cost about $500 to rebuild, and she doesn’t have the money.
She and her family built the initial bus stop at a discount because her brother, who lives in Westlake, gave her the building supplies that were intended for his own children’s clubhouse.
She said Kaylin, 8, and Seth, 2, were willing to forgo their clubhouse so their cousins could be safe waiting for the bus, but that might not happen now.
Adams said she’s checked at Marc’s and a nearby auto parts store, but no one saw anything. North Ridgeville police were called out, but no report on the theft was yet available.
Adams speculates that someone would have had to pull a truck into their front yard or driveway in order to haul the structure out.
“I just really want it back so they have some shelter,” Adams said. “It comes down to safety to them. I just really wanted to feel comfortable knowing that if they’re out there, they’re sheltered.”