Parents and administrators are faced with a feeling of vulnerability and violation. As a day care they thought they were immune to burglaries, until now.
Most of the children at the Avalon Academy in Montrose are too young to understand what happened at their daycare this weekend.
Director Connie McGrew tells us someone stood on a child's chair outside, pried open a window sometime late Friday or early Saturday and then crept inside. She says they ransacked her office, then hit the rest of the building, ripping off several thousand dollars worth of computers, office equipment and a TV/DVD player. At the front desk only, a jumbled mess of cords were left behind. McGrew says thieves even took whatever payments were in the tuition box.
She asked, "Who would want to come in and do something like this and why?"
The Avalon Academy is a non-profit day care facility first licensed in 1987. More than 120 children attend daily. The center exists only because of tuition, donations and fundraisers. That's why the theft is expected to have such a huge impact.
"Who would steal from children? I don't understand the criminal mentality anyway, but I certainly don't understand stealing from children, from a day care," said parent Alisha Renshaw. "That doesn't make sense to me."
The mission statement in the foyer at Avalon says they exist to make the world a "better place to live." Maybe it would be better folks there say, if the thieves who broke in were taken off the streets.
There isn't a burglary alarm because the center can't afford it.
While there is no description of the suspect, anyone with information is asked to call Crime Stoppers at 713-222-TIPS.
