ELLENVILLE – After a long and difficult past few months, a Good Samaritan has helped one of the Ellenville Police Department's cases to have a happy ending. On June 5, an as-yet unidentified man forced his way into the home of Beverly Regan and her seven-year-old granddaughter, Shawna Richardson. The invader demanded cash, threatening to harm Beverly if she didn't tell him where he could find her money.

"He told me, if he found out that I was lying, that he was going to come back and that he was really going to hurt me," said Beverly of the experience. "I never saw him in my life. And I just kept telling him, 'you do what you have to do, just don't touch the baby.'"

Eventually, the attacker fled their home with Shawna's piggy bank, which was filled with a few hundred dollars that she had spent nearly three years saving.

After reading about the robbery in the paper, an anonymous Ellenville couple decided to do something to show Shawna that there are some good people in the world On Thursday last week, they dropped off a letter to Shawna, as well as a brand new piggy bank filled to the brim with quarters — quite possibly containing even more money than she had when her piggy bank was first stolen.

"No one, especially a seven-year-old girl, should ever have to feel threatened in her home, in Ellenville, or any other village, town, or city in America or any other country in the world," wrote the anonymous benefactors in the letter.

"Just know that not all people in the world, including those who live and work in Ellenville, are bad. Unfortunately, some are, but as you'll learn, there are so many good and wonderful and caring people who hope that a seven-year-old young lady like you will grow up to be a wonderful young woman."

Shawna and her grandmother came to the police station on Friday to pick up the piggy bank and the letter from Chief Phil Mattracion.

"It speaks to our community and it says, 'we're not giving up,'" said Chief Mattracion. "The residents say, 'we've had enough. We're still a community, we're still strong, and we want to support one another in a time of need.'"

As to what Shawna will buy with her newly restored savings, she said she wasn't sure. But with a birthday coming up in September, it's likely that she'll find a good use for the contents of her brand new piggy bank.

"The people who dropped it off are very involved in our community, and very concerned especially for the moral welfare and the emotional state of the victim in this case," said the chief. "It's a wonderful feeling to know that people care."