Safe-snatchers hit charity store

MAT-SU — Ann Cockrell said it has been hard to get comfortable at work since thieves broke into Bishop’s Attic earlier this week.

“It’s where I work; it’s where I spend a lot of time,” said Cockrell, the second-hand store’s manager. “These people are my family. This is kind-of my home, so I kind-of feel violated.”

Palmer Police Detective Kelly Turney said the burglary happened sometime either late Tuesday evening or early Wednesday morning. Somebody — likely more than one somebody — broke in and made off with the store’s safe, leaving the merchandise untouched. Bishop’s Attic sells second-hand and donated items to help the less fortunate.

“There were items that were easily pawnable or saleable or tradable, and none of these items were disturbed,” Turney said.

He declined to comment about the extent of damage to the store or the amount of money the safe contained. He said there was a significant amount of vandalism done to the store. Most seemed to be the type of damage done “just so they could get to what they were going to get to.”

Turney said he’s hoping for information from the public to help solve the burglary and urges anyone who might have been in the area to call police or submit an anonymous tip through Mat-Su Crime Stoppers at 745-3333.

“Somebody decided to steal from an entity that is set up to help people, which is the most disturbing part to me,” Turney said.

Well, that and the other thing.

“Six weeks ago we had a similar case at the Palmer pool,” Turney said. Then, burglars broke in and made off with the pool’s safe.

“I don’t know if they’re related, but they’re similar enough that the public should be concerned,” Turney said of the two safe-snatchings.

Cockrell said the store had to remain closed Wednesday. She was there from 6 a.m. to 5 p.m. cleaning up the place and re-keying the doors. Keys to the building and tills from the cash register were in the safe, Turney said.

Thursday, Cockrell said the store was open and, besides a boarded-up window, back to normal.

Losing a day of business is hard for the store, she said. But so was losing a day’s worth of donations. Fewer people bring items to the store in January, February and March, probably because folks just aren’t as active in the cold, she said.

“This is the time of year where we’re hurting for donations,” Cockrell said. “We need them.”

Bishop’s Attic is a nonprofit founded by two Valley Catholic churches — St. Michael’s in Palmer and Sacred Heart in Wasilla. The store’s profits go to a list of 25 local charities, everything from food banks to Head Start programs to senior centers, Cockrell said. Volunteers and folks working off community service hours staff the store.

Some customers have told her the safe theft is “like stealing form the church,” Cockrell said. “Very much, people feel that way. You stole from the church; that’s just wrong.”

Others are simply outraged. So is Cockrell. She hopes police find the culprits and prosecute.

“I’m angry, but I’m hurt as well,” she said..