ST. LOUIS — "Somebody had driven a truck through the front door," Aimee Dearsley the Chief Development Officer Stray Rescue of St. Louis told 5 On Your Side.
"They had come in and stolen three very large pallets of copper and conduit and wiring," she said.
The theft happened at Stray Rescue's newest facility on Bingham Avenue. The nonprofit closed on the 84,000-square-foot industrial building in March after outgrowing its 34,000-square-foot location on Pine Street.
The copper is worth thousands.
Dearsley estimates the loss at $100,000 and that's just to get the lights back temporarily.
Because the wire was pulled out, the job facing electricians isn't a repair job, it's a replacement job. Every copper wire was cut from the main power board and stripped.
Dearsley said the theft comes at a time when Stray Rescue of St. Louis is already hurting.
"In the last 72 hours we have had three dogs come in that have been shot, the violence is unnerving and it's frustrating," she said.
No person or animal was hurt at the Bingham Avenue break-in, but Dearsley said the shelter staff is shaken up.
"It was definitely a planned operation," she said. "Somebody came in, knew what they were doing, they knew what was in here."
Despite the loss, the Stray Rescue Leaders are not stopping, the shelter staff is pressing on with a lofty vision of a three-story 84,000 square feet shelter.
"We're still moving forward," Dearsley said. "We're not going to stop."
They had hoped to move into the new facility in the next three to five years, but it's unclear how much of a setback the break-in will pose.
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