JEFFERSONVILLE, IN (WAVE) - For the past year, southern Indiana
volunteers have raised money to care for abused and abandoned animals. They get
a big chunk of funding from thrift store donations used to help pay
for medical care. But because of thieves, the animals and the volunteers have
suffered a major setback.
It's a huge amount of work to run a thrift store, from getting the donations
to selling them. That's especially true for volunteers, but they say the work
is worth it.
"You do all that, and you do it because you want to help so many
animals that need help," said volunteer Lynda Sylvester.
She's talking about animals like Sophie. The now-12-year-old mixed
breed dog couldn't walk and had no hair when they found her. On Friday, she
was happy and healthy and running around the store that bears her name:
Sophie's Hope Thrift Shoppe.
The shop on 10th Street in Jeffersonville is in business to help Sophie and
her pals. That's why what happened this week is so disheartening.
"You come in and you look at something like that and there are really
no words," Sylvester said. "It's just devastating."
Sylvester pointed to a busted window where burglars entered the store. When
volunteers walked in Wednesday, the business was ransacked.
"There was a window air conditioner there," Sylvester said, pointing to
the window, "and they took a crow bar and messed it up and got it
out."
Besides a huge mess to clean up, volunteers realized the store's big ticket
items were gone. They included gold jewelry and collections of coins, knives
and valuable baseball cards. It's a loss of about $2,000. That's a lot of
money to make up, when it's so hard to get the money in the first place.
"It's awful because this is for the dogs, for the animals, and it's
wrong what they did," said Chris McGill, owner of Appliance Sales and
Service next door to the thrift shop. "They'll get their day."
Volunteers say any donations would be appreciated.
Sophie's Hope Thrift Shoppe is open from 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. Wednesday through
Saturday at 3808 East Tenth Street in Jeffersonville.
Anyone with information about the burglary should call Jeffersonville
Police.
Copyright 2013 WAVE News. All rights reserved.
Sophie's Hope Thrift Shoppe is located at 3808 East Tenth Street in Jeffersonville.
Money raised from the items sold at the thrift shop is used to care for abused and abandoned animals.
Volunteer Lynda Sylvester pointed to a window the burglars broke entered the store.
This is Sophie for whom Sophie's Hope Thrift Shoppe was named.
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