Brazen thieves have looted the Empty Stocking Fund's stock of hundreds of MP3 players, dolls, digital radios and other items — $50,000 worth of Christmas gifts for poor children — from a warehouse located in the same building as Atlanta Police headquarters.

The heavy police presence in City Hall East, at the corner of Ponce de Leon and Glen Iris Drive, apparently failed to daunt whoever entered the building through a small window, inflicting the greatest loss ever in the charity's 80-year history. Last year, robbers hit a credit union branch in the same building.

"We've had a little pilfering every once in a while and things have disappeared, but we've never had anyone break into our warehouse," said Donald Crawford, fund executive director. The warehouse is used by the Empty Stocking Fund as temporary storage and a distribution center.

The gifts were to be distributed to more than 46,000 children beginning Thursday. As police investigate, fund officials scrambled to replace the gifts, including toy jewelry, CD players, watches and backpacks.

Program officials said the burglary could have happened anytime between Wednesday night and Friday night. Police were alerted Sunday.

Burglars entered the massive building — which covers more than a city block — through a window that is below ground level, facing busy Ponce de Leon Avenue. The area of the cavernous city hall where burglars hit is at least a city block away from police offices.

Investigators believe at least two people used a police barricade as a makeshift ladder.

Once inside, they apparently used the gift backpacks to carry the loot through the window and out of the building, according to Officer Ronald Campbell, an Atlanta police spokesman.

"It wasn't out from under our noses," Campbell insisted, adding that no security cameras were used in that area. "We don't

run the security in the building."

Campbell said a private company, DSI Security Services, has the contract to secure the building. A woman who answered the phone at a number given for the company declined to comment.

Police Chief Richard Pennington was out of town Tuesday and unavailable for comment, Campbell said.

City Councilman Kwanza Hall, whose district includes City Hall East, said he was stunned by the robbery.

"A robbery anywhere in the city is troubling, but to add insult to injury, it happening there makes it even worse," he said.

Hall recalled volunteering at the Empty Stocking Fund as a child. "For someone to rob the Empty Stocking Fund, it's just a travesty," he said.

Rick Harris, the fund's program manager, said he discovered the burglary Saturday afternoon when he stopped by the warehouse to pick up some paperwork. Flapping curtains and strewn, open boxes gave the crime scene way.

"It's like stealing from church for me," said Harris. "It's just the thought of some kids having to do without because some people are being greedy."

Crawford said vendors have promised to replace the stolen items or at least provide comparable substitutes, perhaps at a lower cost than the $22,000 already spent. The gifts, purchased at discount, have a retail value approaching $50,000.

The vendors, he said, "feel bad about what's happened," Crawford said. "We hope we can get a little price break."

The thieves stole hundreds of each of the items. Hardest hit were the high-end electronic gifts earmarked for older children ages 11-13. The take represented as much as 30 percent of what the fund planned to give that targeted group, but only about 5 percent of what the program had available to dole out, Crawford said.

"We serve 5,000 to 6,000 in that age group," Crawford added. "That's why it's so important that we replace it."

City Hall East has been gift central for the fund, of which The Atlanta Journal-Constitution is a major sponsor, for more than a decade without incident.

The program is determined not to let what Crawford described as a "Grinch type of thing" ruin the season for the thousands of children referred to the gift giveaway by the state Department of Family and Children Services.

"It's hard to think that people would steal from poor children," Crawford added. "It's like stealing from church."

— Staff writer Eric Stirgus contributed to this report.