A thief walked into the Great Harvest Bread Company in northeast Albuquerque recently and stole a donation box intended for one of the many animal rescue organizations the company supports.
The act was caught on video, shocking the owners and leaving a charitable organization without crucial funds needed to serve homeless, helpless and hungry pups.
“Someone very calculatingly waited for an opportune moment to not only take some product but to also take the donation bin,” Liz Pierce, co-owner of the Great Harvest Bread Company, told KOB 4. “You don’t think about it you don’t expect it. We have such a great customer base you just would never dream that we’d be in that position.”
Pierce and her husband Jim have five rescue dogs at home. They have raised funds for various rescue organizations since they opened their business in 2014. The organizations support dogs, birds and even bears. They rotate donation boxes for six organizations at their front counter.
“The people that run these organizations, these rescue groups, just pour their heart and energy and lives into it, and we ask our customers to donate,” Pierce said.
She didn’t know the donation box for NM Dog was missing until two people from the organization came in to collect it.
“I walked out here thinking sure, and it was gone,” Pierce said.
A surveillance video broadcast on KOB 4 clearly showed a dark-haired man with a goatee and baseball cap surveying the store for an opportunity to steal the donation box. While an employee was busy and other customers looked away, the man slid the donation box into a half-full shopping cart he was carrying and calmly walked out of the door.
Angela Stell, founder of NM DOG, was also shaken but the brazen act.
“Are we putting our business partners in a position to be a target for theft when there’s a box of cash sitting on the counter?” she said to KOB 4. “It’s just it’s sad we never worried about this before it seems like, and now it’s an issue. We work really, really hard at NM DOG. We’re all volunteers and every penny that we’re able to scrounge up absolutely matters.”
Albuquerque Police are asking anyone who recognizes the thief to call the department.
