URBANA, Ill. (WCIA)– Over the weekend the Champaign County Animal Shelter was broken into. It’s not a normal place you would think crooks would target, but now they are increasing security.
“It’s alarming, I think our first priority was making sure all the animals were accounted for and safe in their enclosures,” said Adoption Supervisor Danielle Misa.
Mary Tiefenbrunn, executive director humane society, says the staff was so focused on making sure the animals were safe that they didn’t notice that anything was taken until the day after the break-in.
“Nothing else was displaced, nothing looked like anybody was looking for anything else, but must have grabbed what was easy and that was a little donation box,” said Tiefenbrunn.
While a donation box might seem like nothing, Tiefenbrunn says the small Nic-knack has become sentimental to the animal shelter.
“It’s been there for at least 20 years, it’s been there as long as I’ve worked here,” says Tiefenbrunn.
Thankfully the piggy bank did not have many donations in it since they had just emptied it in the bank.
“My guess would be it was less than 20 dollars that they got out of it, the cost of repairing the doors is a lot more than the value of what they took,” said Tiefenbrunn.
Misa says she is disappointed that someone would take from a charity.
“We’re nonprofits so we run just off of donations made by the public,” said Misa.
Now they hope the community will continue to help and that maybe the person or people who did this will return a staple to the shelter.
“If you are watching this at the very least, we would love that piggy bank back,” said Misa.
On top of that, Tiefenbrunn says their phone systems are down, so if you want to buy a ticket to The Fur Ball or donate you can do that online or email them.