Money for funeral stolen from accordion store in the East Village

EAST VILLAGE (WABC) -- Money for a funeral was stolen from a music store in Manhattan.

Friends and customers of the quirky store's owner, who died of cancer 10 days ago, came together to raise the money, and then someone came in and just took it.

You'd be amazed at what you can squeeze into a tiny store.

Marianne DeMarco has spent two weeks trying to pack it all up through puffy eyes and unmitigated sadness.

"You know we knew Walter was not going to be here much longer. But he poured so much of his heart and soul into this store," said Marianne DeMarco, Walter's friend.

You've probably never put the words accordion and orchestra together in a sentence, but then again you probably never had the pleasure of meeting Walter Khr.

"He was, like, hilarious without meaning to be. He was just such a strange character," said Melissa Elledge, an orchestra member.

He was a German immigrant obsessed with the accordion, who made it his life's mission to perform it and teach it and repair it in his tiny Essex Street shop called "The Main Squeeze".

But just after New Year's, Walter lost his fight with cancer and the store would have to close.

Melissa Elledge played in his orchestra.

"I was generally happy that he wasn't sick anymore and in pain anymore, but the other part of me has just felt so lucky that I knew him," Elledge said.

To pay for his funeral, this weekend Marianne and other friends started selling the place off piece by eclectic piece to friends and strangers alike.

"The whole goal wasn't to make buckets of money. Though we could certainly use buckets of money," DeMarco said.

And when an older man with a moustache walked in, they gave him Walter's tool chest for free, and a slice of cake.

"He went back there, took his cake, but also took about $650," DeMarco said.

The $650 was money to pay for Walter's funeral.

"He must have really needed it to do something really cruel to people who were really nice to him," DeMarco said.

But as friends continued carting away what's left this, they said, was not just about losing the money, or even losing a beloved friend.

"When we have to close the doors for the last day it's going to hurt. You know a lot of people," DeMarco said.

But on a block, in a city in the midst of endless change, they say it's a loss of community and yet another small business being squeezed out.