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The Angels of Long Island thrift store is known for giving back and providing resources to individuals who are in the midst of a crisis.
Now, they are in need of assistance following a robbery at their East Patchogue store Monday morning.
A chaotic scene unfolded inside the store during operating hours when one of the shop’s regular customers was caught stealing money from the office of co-founder Debbie Loesch. The robber was detained and held in a room after police were alerted — but not before she passed off over $1,600 in funds to a person who fled the store, Loesch believes.
Additionally, the suspect had pushed a shopping cart full of coins and snatched $1,200 from Loesch’s desk — which was her daughter’s rent money.
While reviewing security camera footage with authorities, Loesch said she was able to retrieve other items that the woman tossed in a panic, including her debit cards.
The robber also threw the $1,200 onto the floor of the store under a clothing rack, as she was caught.
Watching the video, Loesch saw that the suspect entered her office three times, and then went into her daughter and co-founder Brittany’s office.
“She was talking with another woman in my store and I think she passed off the envelopes because we can’t find them anywhere,” Loesch said. “Around the store, we found a majority of our stuff.”
About $1,600 from the week’s sales were unrecovered, and the situation caused Loesch to lose an entire day of business.
The robber was arrested and released the same night, Loesch said.
Loesch said the missing money is used to pay the overhead for the shop and without it, not only will the business struggle, but Angels of Long Island cannot properly help the people who rely on their services.
Patchogue-Medford High School student Emily Volpe heard about the robbery and set up a GoFundMe page to help raise money for Angels of Long Island. The community has raised $615 out of the $5,000 goal so far.
You can click here to make a donation to the fundraiser for Angels of Long Island.
“When stuff like this happens, it does set us back,” Loesch said. “We are coming into our busy outreach season, but [it’s] slow in our store. We get very busy around the holidays.”
Top photo: Exterior of Angels of Long Island. (Facebook)
