I.C. Humane Society has donated items stolen
The Imperial Valley Humane Society said the shelter has lost hundreds of dollars in stolen donated items.
Executive Director Devon Apodaca said one of the shelter’s residents, Batman the cat, and the other 350 animals are the latest victims of crime.
“On our security camera system, quite a few times we’ve caught someone coming to the shelter late at night through a hole that they cut through the fence over here,” Apodaca said.
The El Centro Police has not caught the suspect.
“They’ve sent officers out. And they’ve done everything that they can to help,” Apodaca said.
Valuable donated items have been lost.
“Animal food has been stolen. Larger items that had some value on them like our pressure washer. We’ve noticed some of our carriers have gone missing,” Apodaca said.
A painful loss for a shelter running on private donations.
“We rely solely on the donations that people donate through monetary contributions that people give to us on a monthly basis,” Apodaca said.
It’s a frustrating situation for the shelter.
“When we get things here at our shelter for the animals, you know, we work very hard for the little that we do have, and for someone to come in here and take those things away from the animals it’s upsetting, it’s discouraging,” Apodaca said.
Security is a major need.
“Securing this back area, back over here where the break-ins are taking place. Anybody has extra chain link fencing lying around or barb wire or anything like that they be willing to donate,” Apodaca said.
The shelter encourages the community to contact them if they want to help with security or by replacing the stolen items. They can also help by adopting one of the animals there – including Batman the cat.
