Updated: 5:44 p.m. Friday, May 16, 2014 | Posted: 5:16 p.m. Friday, May 16, 2014

Middletown food pantry burglarized

ByKevin Aldridge

Staff Writer

   MIDDLETOWN — Thieves used a forklift to knock down adoor at Family Services of Middletown and steal more than $1,800 worth of itemsfrom its warehouse Thursday night or early Friday morning, the pantry’sdirector Maurice Maxwell told the Journal-News.

    “What we feel disappointed about is thatfolks can come to us, and we don’t deny them of resources and things they need;they don’t have to steal from us,” Maxwell said Friday afternoon. “But I guesswith the state of our economy right now, a lot of folks are desperate andfeeling the pressure to pay bills and have the resources they need, so they goin the direction of theft.”

    Maxwell said the thieves broke into FamilyServices’ warehouse at 1311 Columbia Ave. through a back door onthe west side of the building that faces a Middletown Division of Fire station.He said once inside, they went to a loading area where Family Services keepsmost of its stock of non-perishable foods and donated items, and they took aforklift and backed it into a wall and a door, tearing it off the hinges.

    According to a Middletown police report,the thieves took an assortment of items, including: two lawnmower/weed eater(each $180 value), three gas vent pipes ($90), a self-propelled lawnmower($350), table top fan ($100), 10 metal racks ($300), 10 bags of fertilizer($400), two bags of charcoal ($20), 30 packs of cheese ($120) and six packs ofCapri-Sun juice ($60). According to the report, there was “a leaf blower thatwas taken out and appeared to have been stripped of some of the metal that itcontained.”

Maxwellsaid the value of the items stolen totalled more than $1,800. He said thethieves left a trail of items that they dropped as they fled through thebattered door on the east side of the facility. He said they also left acalling card behind.

    “The area had a bottle of alcohol present.It’s clear they were enjoying it as they were in the process of taking ourstuff,” he said.

    Maxwell said Family Services did not have asecurity system or cameras at the facility. He said the agency’s limited budgetdidn’t allow for it and officials relied on standard locks, being in a highlyvisible area and having close proximity to a fire station for security. Butsince the break-in, Maxwell said, the agency and its board are making getting acamera system for after-hours security “a top priority.”

    “It is going to happen, but we’ve got toraise the money to make that happen,” he said. “We are very concerned aboutwhat happens in the future until we can secure ourselves a little more.”

    According to the police report, officerslocated one drop of blood at the scene and it was collected as evidence.Maxwell provided names of volunteers to officers to help with theinvestigation, the report states.

    Maxwell called the break-in “a minor setback.”The agency, which has an $800,000 annual budget (more than $600,000 of whichcomes from in-kind food and other donations), serves between 800 and 1,200families a month. Maxwell said for the first time in 30 years, Family Serviceswill not be offering its summer food program for children because the agencycould no longer afford to. Last year, the program served more than 28,000lunches to city youth.

    Maxwell said resident support of FamilyService has always been strong, and that there would probably be those who willstep up to help the agency after this unfortunate incident.

“Itcertainly doesn’t make us feel good that people have to take stuff from us,” hesaid. “So people might ask, ‘Why would somebody steal from a place that’strying to help people?’ When people are desperate, they lose their consciencearound what concern it is, or its purpose, or what it does for the communityand others. They are focused only on the value of what they are getting and howthey can turn it around and help their own needs.”

Staff Writer Lot Tan contributed to this report.