A/C units stolen from charity

CROSBY, TX Folks there are thankful the theft happened in the winter time and not in the heat of summer. One of the air conditioning units at the building was stolen earlier this month. The other four were discovered missing Thanksgiving morning.

On Thanksgiving morning, Marvin Arnold came here to cut the grass. What he saw here left him anything but thankful.

"I about fell off the lawnmower. I couldn't believe my eyes really," said Arnold.

He says someone took bolt cutters to the locks on the power boxes, shutting off electricity before cutting each of the lines connecting five air conditioners. They then took each unit.

"It's so sad that somebody would do this," Arnold said.

Sad, Arnold says, because it's in effect stealing from the poor. You se,e he operates Churches United in Caring, a thrift shop which generates money to run a food pantry and assistance center which serves the needy in Crosby, Huffman and Barrett.

"It is horrible. Perhaps they didn't realize it was this type of place," said Julia Ellison.

They get about 5,000 pounds of food a week here, feeding about 35 families every seven days. Ellison is one of those recipients.

"They're taking from the community, from the people that really need something, and they have nothing," said Ellison.

Maybe it's a sign of the times, volunteers say; maybe it's because we're approaching Christmas. Maybe they speculate it's just someone feeding a drug habit. Stealing from those helping the needy though seems to cross some line.

"We don't understand. I cannot understand why somebody would want to do that. I will never understand that," said volunteer Joyce Boyles.

Arnold hopes those responsible are caught. But not to punish them so much he says as to set them straight.

"I think that prayer would be the answer for that. Prayer does wonders," Arnold said.

We're told thieves aren't getting as much for what's in these A/C units as they might think.

Investigators have few leads in this case. If you have information which can help, you can contact Crime Stoppers at 713-222-8477.

This story was brought to you through our partnership with Houston Community Newspapers. You can read more about the search for suspects in this case in The Lake Houston Sentinel.