SALADO, TX — Central Texas is home to the country's first and only mobile hyperbaric service for animals.
All Creatures Hyperbaric Care has saved hundreds of animals using hyperbaric oxygen therapy.
But, owners of the company Teri Swanson and Susan Lowry said it will now be months before they are mobile again because their trailer was stolen while they were in Kingwood, Texas, provided treatment for animals.
Fortunately, thanks to security footage, the trailer was located near the Houston dump.
Swanson said that before the trailer was found, it was ransacked.
"I arrived at about 6:15 in the morning to get everything ready for treatments to start at 8 and the trailer was just gone," Swanson said. "We are figuring somewhere around $3,000 worth of stuff was stolen."
The trailer hitch had two locks on it, both of which were cut by a grinder.
Swanton reported the theft to the Montgomery County Sheriff’s Department who encouraged her to reach out to surrounding businesses for security footage.
Swanson said she got lucky and found footage of her trailer being pulled into a parking lot.
"The Montgomery Sheriff's Department told me that there was a lot of businesses around that had cameras and so I made up a flier that morning and had fliers out by 10 o'clock in the morning and was talking to local businesses owners,” Swanton said. "We got footage of them actually turning in to, I am assuming fix the chains because we heard something dragging behind in the videos."
Swanson along with the sheriff's department posted the video on social media which led to a break in the case.
"The people saw the trailer parked there and they opened it up and one of my business cards was laying on the floor and they called me," Swanson said. "They took out what they could sell and get rid of like our generators and a lot of our other equipment that they could just get done fast."
Swanson said thinking about the animals that now won’t be able to get help, breaks her heart.
"They won't be receiving hyperbaric oxygen treatment and most of the time when animals come to us, we are there last hope,” Swanson said.
The trailer is now being inspected for damage to the hyperbaric chamber system.
Police are still searching for the people involved in the crime.
