Business Donates Tools To Student After Thieves Steal Welding Equipment

A Green Country business is stepping up to help a high school senior after someone stole his welding equipment.

The student’s mom shared the incident on social media, which caught the eye of people who wanted to help him out. James Box is a senior at Kiefer High School and was getting ready for a welding competition in April when thieves stole some of his equipment. His truck was parked outside of his Sapulpa workplace when cameras caught someone taking his tools from the bed.

“I was pretty upset,” said Box. “I’m sure they didn’t know it was a kid but there’s nothing I can do about it now.”

After his mom posted about the incident, others who felt they could do something about it started reaching out. This includes Michael Tyre, who works at Gas and Supply in West Tulsa.

“I immediately took a screenshot of it and sent it to my boss,” said Tyre.

After getting the green light to help out, Tyre contacted the Box family and offered to replace the equipment to get James back in business.

“We’ll be here to help you guys out if that’s OK with you,” Tyre said to the Box family.

They met on Friday afternoon to get loaded up on new tools that Box can use. He’s planning on a career in welding when he finishes school.

“I think it’s good for a young kid to be able to see that bad things are going to happen,” said Tyre. “There’s a lot of good people out there who can offset the bad in this world.”

Box has some time to use his new equipment ahead of his state competition in April. If all goes well, he could land a trip to a national welding competition.