Local animal shelter gets help from community after hundreds of dollars are stolen

LAFAYETTE, Ind. (WLFI) - Early Thursday morning Natalie's Second Chance Animal Shelter owner Natalie Moore noticed her car had been broken into. Among the missing items was hundreds of dollars in cash and checks she said she put in her glove compartment to keep safe until she could go to the bank Thursday morning. That money had been donated to the shelter to help pay for veterinarian bills and food for the animals.

Out hundreds of dollars Moore said for the first time in five years she thought she'd have to close her doors for good.

"I just didn't even know how we were going to make it the rest of the month," Moore said. "I just immediately didn't know what I was going to to do or how we were going to make it."

She said she posted a message on Facebook to let people who'd written checks know that they'd been stolen, but what happened next she said she never expected.

"It was an immediate response that people started sending in money or people were meeting us at the door and the PayPal. My phone kept going off. People were donating like crazy," Moore said.

Brock Haselby donated food, treats and a dog bed to the shelter.

"We just think it's such a shame that somebody would do something like that especially around this Christmas time and stuff," Haselby said. "We're animal lovers, we got dogs and cats. We take in stray animals when we can and stuff and we thought any way we could give back we will."

Subaru of Indiana Automotive Human Resource Group Leader Jennifer McGarvey said every year SIA donates to a local animal shelter and after hearing about the stolen money employees decided to deliver food and toys to Natalie's.

"We actually loaded up one of our Outbacks full of all the food we collected from all of our associates and brought it over yesterday," McGarvey said.

Moore said people from the community and local businesses haven't stopped walking through the door with donations and said because of their help all her animals will be okay.

"I have more dogs today than I've ever had," Moore said. "We have about 75 dogs and all of them now are going to be OK so I am so grateful. So grateful for this community."

As of Friday afternoon Moore said she's received more than $5,000 in donations and hundreds of pounds of food for the animals.