OXFORD – The dream of an Oxford couple who gained nationwide attention in December after thieves stole Christmas money they had raised for local school children has come to an end.

On Tuesday, Keenan Auction Co. of South Portland will auction off Dino’s Variety store on Skeetfield Road. The store has been emptied and a sign on the door says simply “Thanks for your patronage.”

“We tried and we tried, but this last year has really been a real strain on us,” Pauline Paladino said Wednesday. She was just laid off from her seasonal job at Dead River Co. “Times are rough. Times are tough. Prices are going up. People just don’t have the money. We feel bad. We really enjoyed the people, the community.”

The Paladinos purchased the store four years ago after Gary was laid off from his job in Auburn after 28 years, just a year-and-one-half short of receiving his pension. “This was his dream. I guess it didn’t work,” she said of the market where children could come in on a cold, winter day without hat and gloves and leave with a pair that her husband would give a child from a stash he kept in the back room.

“I know my husband did everything imaginable (to keep the store afloat.) We put all our life savings into this. We don’t have anything else.”

In December, the store gained nationwide media attention when nearly $5,000 poured into Dino’s Variety from all over the country to help support local school children after a Christmas Grinch stole $67 from a donation jar in November. The money jar was part of the annual $500 contribution store patrons made for the PTA’s annual Christmas drive to help buy presents for needy Oxford school children. The fundraising effort, which included a $1 raffle for “the world’s largest Christmas tree stocking” had just begun when the break-in occurred.

That was the sixth break-in the Paladinos had since they bought the store. An arrest has not been made.

“That played a lot into it,” said Pauline of the need to pay a high deductible for high insurance costs and then to pay for windows that were smashed. Previous thefts had included smashing surveillance cameras the couple had installed.

In addition to the market, which has a retail area, lunch counter and dining area on just over an acre of land, a ranch-style house on an acre of land will also be auctioned off.

Paladino said that is not their home, but they are trying hard to keep the house they are living in.

“We’re trying to stay in the home,” she said. Meanwhile she and her husband continue to search for jobs.

“They say when one window closes another one opens. We’re hoping,” she said.