INDIANAPOLIS (WISH) – A south side school is at a loss after a backpack was stolen out of a teacher’s truck.

Inside that backpack were donations a teacher at Central Christian Academy had been raising since the summer.

Micheal Shuessler is a strength and conditioning coach at Central Christian Academy. When he walked out to his truck to head to work Monday morning, he couldn’t believe what he saw.

“My glove box was all open and stuff, my wallet was open, all the cash in my wallet was gone, my credit cards were gone. Pretty much everything that was valuable in my truck was gone,” says Schuessler.

Schuessler’s backpack was also stolen. His personal items that were inside included a laptop, teaching books, and a bible. There was also more than $1,000 in donations that Shuessler had raised for the school’s weight room.

“We haven’t really had a weight room. We had a hallway. I think he may have talked about that, where we just kind of had stuff out and doing things. So he was real excited about that. He put a lot of time and effort into it,” David Sexauer, Head of School said.

Schuessler had spent months selling old equipment and taking donations to work on rebuilding the strength and conditioning program.

“All of that to try to give these kids an actual weight room to try to help our athletics as much as we could,” says Schuessler.

The kids were excited about the growing program and the potential it held for their school.

“Just to see all of the hard work he has put in. A big relationship thing for him to tell the kids, ‘hey here is what I am working on.’ And to see that happen, that was the toughest part for me,” Sexauer said.

“I feel a little bit of guilt and burden that I kind of had the money just sitting in a book bag, and I kind of let them down and just let all of that money go,” Schuessler said.

While Scheussler would like his personal items back, he wants the thief to know who they were actually stealing from.

“All these kids that deserve all of this equipment that work their butts off all the time, you stole from all of them. You didn’t steal from me, that wasn’t my money,” Schuessler said.

Anyone interested in making a donation to the school’s strength and conditioning program can contact the school or make a donation directly through the school’s website.