SPOKANE-- SpokAnimal has hired a Spokane Police Officer to watch over one of its buildings at night. This comes after a thief broke in and stole electronics for the second time in a week.
SpokAnimal will use the officer who is normally off duty at night to watch over the building under construction. The shelter will do that until it can get some bars on the new windows.
Gail Mackie is SpokAnimal’s executive director. She says police believe the thief broke, unlocked, opened, and crawled through a window. They stole a desktop computer, a monitor, two printers, digital photo frames, an Internet router box and a little stuffed teletubby. The person also threw a rock against a wall and trashed two offices. Mackie says she doesn’t understand why anyone would have that kind of anger and she has no idea who is doing this either.
Police pulled fingerprints off the glass and will hopefully be able to get a hit off that and figure out who did this. Mackie thinks it could be the same person who stole a desktop computer last week. It contained important information for a grant.
The computer stolen Sunday had all the information for a two week kids camp which started Monday. No donor contacts or credit card information was stolen from either machine. Mackie says it still feels very invasive.
The building remains under renovation. It contains administrative offices but will later house a vet clinic and event center. SpokAnimal planned to eventually bar the windows. After the two break-ins, the shelter has made that top priority. It hopes to have the bars installed by the end of the week.
In the meantime, Mackie has hired that officer to patrol the building. She says it’s the only way they can be safe right now. Mackie says these two break ins have cost the shelter several thousand dollars, money that otherwise could have been used on the animals.
