The group had a boot drive Saturday and planned to open a bank account with the money on Tuesday, fire-rescue spokesman Frank Correggio said. Until then, Caryn LaPorta, whose son is an Explorer, took the money home for safekeeping. Her house was broken into Monday morning and the money was taken, he said.
Her husband came home for lunch about 1:20 p.m., found the front door open and called police.
The thieves rummaged through the couple's dressers and closet, which is where they found the bag of money.
"It was in a backpack in the back of the closet behind a bunch of pants," Caryn LaPorta, who helped organize the event, said. "I thought, `Let me put it somewhere so it's not laying out.'"
A DVD player, jewelry, two antique guns and two laptop computers were taken, but the missing money is what upsets her most.
"We had just busted our butts on Saturday," she said. "This program just started in March and they have no funds. We got all the kids together to raise some money."
From 11 a.m. to 4 p.m., Explorers and volunteers were stationed throughout the city raising money to help buy gear -- such as steel-toe boots, traffic vests and nametags -- and to send the group to a fire-rescue Explorer competition in Seminole County next month.
The event tests skills in mock drills, such as extricating people from simulated auto accidents, search-and-rescue and rolling out a fire hose.
When Chris LaPorta's mother told him what happened, he thought she was joking.
"But when she told me for serious, I got mad," the 16-year-old said. "The stuff, we can replace all that. I was more upset that the money was taken because all of us stood out there and took our Saturday to do this."
The Boca Raton High School student said he was looking forward to going to the competition in July.
The $1,400 "would have covered us for meals and the hotels," he said. "That would have been perfect."
Now the group is trying to scramble to figure out how it's going to raise enough money to send its 19 members to the competition.
