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Animal shelter shaken after multiple burglaries

INDIANAPOLIS (WISH) — Volunteers at Heaven After Hell dog and cat rescue are shaken after two burglaries last month.

“They’re terrified, so we’re having to put more people on more shifts and all of us have jobs,” volunteer Miranda Payne said.

During the first break in, Payne says $175 and a laptop were taken.

She said the thief came in through the roof.

“What we saw were ceiling tiles moved,” she said.

Another break-in happened a week later.

“The second time, he actually took a door off the hinges,” Payne said.

She said the person took a grill and a floor vacuum, but most importantly, damaged the air conditioning unit just as the weather is heating up.

“We have window units all over the place, I mean we’ve had to cut holes in walls to just make sure that the animals are staying cool,” she said.

And it is the well-being of those animals that concerns her the most.

“While the money and the laptop and those things are extremely frustrating and we don’t have money to replace them, he’s coming into their home and disturbing these animals while they’re sleeping,” she said.

She’s hoping security footage captured during the second break-in can lead police to a suspect.

It shows someone briefly opening a door inside the building.

Payne is in the process of handing that over to police.

But in the mean time, she said extra precautions will have to do to protect her furry family.

“We’re taking extra measures to make sure that doors are barricaded when we leave,” she said.

Volunteers believe they know who it is: an ex-husband of one of the volunteers.

They’ve been in contact with an IMPD detective who is looking into the case.

As of Monday afternoon, the police had not yet reviewed that security footage.

Police also do not have a suspect and they haven’t yet contacted that individual.

If you would like to help the rescue shelter, you can head to their Facebook page.