WASHINGTON – It was supposed to be a positive night, meant to raise money for the homeless charity Thrive D.C. But as an area choir performed its Christmas concert, someone was stealing from the singers.

It happened as the Thomas Circle Singers were performing at an annual benefit Christmas Concert Sunday night at St. Paul’s Lutheran Church.

“Literally, under our feet, someone was rifling through our bags and purses and wallets,” says Clark Cheney, board president for the choir.

In all, 15 credit cards, debit cards and IDs were stolen. Most choir members didn’t realize the thefts until after they left the church and went to make purchases. The individuals affected filed a police report.

“Especially at the holidays, when we’re shopping and wanting to share the holiday spirit with friends and family, to have your bank account frozen to have to wait for a card to be reissued was awful for a lot of people,” Cheney says.

Everyone in the choir is fine, Cheney says, and will soon have everything back to normal. But choir members are having a harder time shaking the feeling of disappointment.

“The old saying, ‘No good deed goes unpunished,’ seemed to feel true,” he says.

But the choir will continue its original mission to help improve the community and raise awareness despite the incident, he says.

Learn more about Thrive D.C. and the Thomas Circle Singers dual mission on the choir’s website.

And you can watch the group perform in this video from 2009:

Follow @WTOP on Twitter.