SAN JOSE — When residents from the South Bay and beyond heard about a nasty burglary on Christmas morning involving seven hardworking public university students paying for their own education, they simply weren’t having it.

Just minutes after a story publicizing the break-in near San Jose State was posted to this newspaper’s website Sunday evening, random strangers set out to do right by reaching out to the young women with offers of cash and donations. The students, ages 19 through 21, had their gifts and belongings stolen by an unknown burglar on Christmas Day.

Within a day, a crowdfunding website collected more than $11,000 — almost double their original goal of $6,500 — from more than 200 people for the housemates, who are all from low-income families and are struggling on their own to work and study.

Stay-at-home moms, retired probation officers, firefighters, psychotherapists, shop owners, grad students and an elected official are among the more than 100 people who also emailed and called the newspaper almost immediately following news of the burglary, offering help.

The money will go toward replacing stolen laptops and material the students will need when classes begin in January, said Gabriela Avila, a 21-year-old public relations major who is now fielding a flood of well-wishes as she oversees the cleanup of her trashed three-bedroom home.

“It’s insane,” said photography major Alexis Mejia, who lost a treasured family heirloom film camera in the burglary. “We were really, really wowed by the whole thing — we really, really did not expect people to come forward or even donate that much. We did not expect that at all.”

Mejia, 21, met Monday afternoon with Nick Courtney, of Redwood City, who delivered two replacement cameras and lenses he had used during a Navy career. (She had to turn other offers away.) “I was just going to suffer the loss,” Mejia said. “And now I get to go on experimenting and hopefully move on with my art career.”

On Monday, Avila greeted City Councilman Raul Peralez, who made a donation and delivered cinnamon bread and a box of cookies to the South Eighth Street household. Peralez, who also worked his way through SJSU, represents the downtown district and is a former police officer, so he said he couldn’t help but reach out.

“It was all-around very devastating to hear that this happens to someone this time of year — obviously, any time of year,” Peralez said, “but even more so this time of year, when people are thinking more of others than themselves.”

Each of the housemates works at a local service sector job while attending undergraduate classes at SJSU. Among the many items stolen were gifts some of the young women had painstakingly saved for and wrapped to deliver to their families in the Central Valley.

When Avila reached out to the newspaper over the weekend about the burglary, she said she merely intended to alert other SJSU students living in the area to keep an eye on their homes. But by Monday it was clear the story would shift from a public-safety message to a font of generosity.

Donors were particularly angered by the theft of bicycles the students used to get to and from work and school.

“It’s just such a violation of these young ladies’ lives, it made me feel horrible,” said Jan Schneider, owner of R&J Jewelry, who donated four bicycles.

Housemate Vanessa Carpenter, a 20-year-old music technology major who works as a hostess, lost her guitar — but that news also moved numerous readers, sympathetic to a young person taking the time not only to work and study but to pursue the arts. Numerous guitar offerings rolled in throughout Monday, as well as at least one offer to replace Carpenter’s stolen marching band uniform.

Joy Franco, a SJSU alum who is now a mechanical engineering graduate student at Stanford University, drove to San Jose on Monday to deliver her Giant seven-speed cruiser, a classical guitar and a tray of homemade cupcakes to the burglary victims.

“I remember going to S.J. State and my parents couldn’t help me pay for college, so I had to work and look for scholarships,” Franco said. “It’s just really hard when you’re a student trying to focus on your studies and you’re worried about ‘Am I going to get mugged? Am I going to lose my things?’ “

Franco said now that she’s a grad student living on the Stanford campus in relative safety, “I see a completely different world where you don’t have to worry about these things.

“I see how much easier it is to pursue your studies when you’re not in mortal danger. It’s mental energy. It frees you up to focus on what you’re here for and what really matters.”

Contact Karen de Sá at 408-920-5781.