FORT COLLINS, Colo. — Flags of the five military branches were stolen on Flag Day from the Veterans Plaza of Northern Colorado.
"It's just disrespect that I don't understand," Bob Loner, a veteran who helps manage the plaza, told Denver7.
The flags representing the Army, Navy, Air Force, Marines, and Coast Guard were placed on free-standing metal poles on the plaza's grounds in honor of Flag Day.
"We went to go pick them up at seven o'clock and the individual who was helping asked me, 'Bob, did you take the service flags?'" he described. "They were just gone. The poles and the flags."
Loner said the cost of the flags and poles totals about $250, an amount the nonprofit doesn't have readily available to replace them.
But once word got out on their social media pages, the community started to respond with donations.
"We're talking $10, $25, $5 -- but the people have been there," Loner described.
Several people have donated to purchase individual flags of different military branches as well.
"If we raise enough money, we might move to permanent poles to fly them all the time," Loner said.
Donations can be made on the plaza's website.
Loner committed to having the flags flying once again by the Fourth of July.
"They'll be here by the fourth no matter what," he said. "If we have the money or don't have the money, they'll be here."
