The Samaritans Food Pantry in Pauls Valley was burglarized last week, with those responsible stealing or damaging about $400 in grocery items intended for local residents in need.
Volunteers discovered the break-in July 28, when they arrived to unload the food truck and prepare food boxes and found food strewn across the pantry’s front porch and the front door ajar.
“It’s just disheartening,” said Samaritans volunteer Bonnie Meisel. “It’s disappointing and sad that someone would violate what we think is such a good mission.”
The perpetrators moved an air conditioning unit aside and gained access to an exterior air duct, which they crawled through to gain access to the building. Once inside, they rummaged through everything in the building.
“They didn’t take much, but they touched everything in the building,” Meisel said.
Several high value items that one would expect to be a target for thieves were left undisturbed, according to Meisel, while office drawers were pulled out and rifled through and prepared food boxes waiting to be distributed were disturbed, with items being removed or shuffled into other boxes. “They didn’t take things that were really worth money,” Meisel said. “They just did bizarre things.”
A package of cookies was opened and left half-eaten on the counter, along with a partially emptied gallon of milk. Volunteers found a spilled can of spaghetti in another area of the pantry.
A display case in an unused portion of the building that serves as storage for the historical society was pushed over, shattering the glass and spilling items from the case. Someone also wrote in the dust on top of other cases in that part of the building.
Meisel said a small amount of food was taken, and it’s assumed that the food found on the front porch was in the process of being removed when it was abandoned for some reason.
“If they wanted something, if they needed food, all they had to do was pull up out front and ask,” Meisel said.
The Samaritans Food Pantry currently provides food to 200-250 households from around Garvin County each month.
This is the first time the pantry has been broken into since it was founded in 1978.
If you have any information about the break-in, contact the Pauls Valley Police Department at 405-238-5531.
