WACO, Texas (KXXV) — A Waco resale store that supports a local food pantry is dealing with ongoing theft and illegal dumping that's impacting its operations serving the community.
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Things From the Heart, located on Bosque Boulevard, has been experiencing people stealing donated items and dumping trash, leaving workers to clean up the mess daily.
"It's been like this forever," said Bob Gager, CEO and founder of Shepherd's Heart.
The resale store is a branch of Shepherd's Heart Food Pantry, and all sales benefit the food pantry's operations.
Operations Manager Kathy Torres said she witnesses the problems almost every day through security cameras after the store closes.
"Especially once our store closes, people will come and give donations, and other people just come and drive up and take the donations that our community leaves, or they'll just make a mess," Torres said.
The theft and dumping are slowing down the organization's mission to help the community.
"It slows us down because we've got to come and fix this. That's the first thing we'll do when we get here. Our people got here this morning. They'll come and clean this mess up and fix it. It's something that we have to keep them motivated so because it's discouraging to them to have to start this way every day," Gager said.
The store also faces problems with people dumping items like mattresses, which Things From the Heart cannot accept as donations.
"We've spent a lot of time hauling stuff like that to the dump. It takes one of our trucks and a couple of our people to load that stuff up, go to the dump, unload it, we pay for it. It costs us money to do that. So, people who are doing that, they're taken away from the community," Gager said.
Gager emphasized that the resale store is crucial for funding their operations.
"This helps fund our operation. We don't have government money running through Shepherd's heart. This is what really makes it happen," Gager said.
Things From the Heart is reporting these incidents to the police with footage captured from their security cameras. They're asking anyone with donations to drop them off during business hours so they won't be stolen.
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