Thief Steals Cheese, Equipment From Co-Op That Helps Less Fortunate

DENVER (CBS4)- A Denver co-op is cleaning up after an unusual thief broke in overnight. The crime happened early Friday morning at The Co-Op at 1st located at 5045 W 1st Avenue.

The Co-op not only offers a community farmers market, but houses a mix of nonprofits and first time business owners with a focus on health and wellness.

Mavis Salazar runs Grandmothers House of Herbs and Cures and lost thousands of dollars' worth of technical equipment.

"It took me a lot of years to be able to get them and I don't know if I will be able to replace them," she said through tears.

Surveillance cameras show the thief arriving in a silver Saturn sometime around 2 a.m. Friday.

After breaking in through a back door, he's seen limping through their market, scouring the shelves before destroying their nearly empty donation box.

"He basically grabbed this and yanked it a bunch, and in the film he then tried to cut underneath until finally he must have bent it," Executive Director Kristina Welch said while walking through the facility.

Welch says the thief loaded up a number of food items, a block of cheese and boxes full of beef jerky before leaving and then coming back. He's seen a second time walking through the snowy parking lot with his cane.

Eventually he finds a hammer to break into numerous locked offices and filing cabinets where they store the keys to the Co-op's work truck.

"We've been dependent on this truck for five years, it's one of our main modes of transporting our food donations to elementary schools and to food banks across metro Denver," Welch said.

And while the damage and the loss will certainly cost the Co-op, both Welch and Salazar say the thief robbed an entire community.

"I don't think he knows what he took, I really don't," Salazar said.

The work truck was a donation to the Co-op and they cannot afford to replace it they are hoping you will help them find the stolen 1999 Red Toyota Tacoma, it has a sticker in the back window that reads "Country Girl."

Anyone who recognizes the man in the surveillance video is asked to call the Denver Police Department at 720-913-2000.