Captain Harold Laubach was stunned when he learned seven of their ten laptops at the Tulare Salvation Army had been stolen.
" And sure enough that was the only one that was left, you know and there was three that were left and the other ones were left in a drawer or something so we scooped them up and locked them in one of our offices so they don't walk away as well," said Capt. Harold Laubach with the Tulare Salvation Army.
The crime happened during the day when the Tulare Salvation Army received help from a number of different people in the community. They range from youth groups to court-ordered volunteers.
"One you steal from a church but two you feel from a charity that's also a church and where are we supposed to go find more money to buy more computers and that's the bad part you know-stealing is stealing you know but you steal from a charity that provides computers for free?" Laubach said.
With seven laptops stolen, the Salvation Army doesn't have enough computers to run its adult language classes or open up the lap for youth group sessions. Laubach says a lot of teenagers come in to use the computers because they don't have internet access at their house.
"They do job applications online they can do we had some in here a few weeks ago that were doing college applications online for COS," Laubach said.
Tulare police say they're following up on all leads that have come in.
"It appears they were valued at approximately $100 apiece," Sgt. Darron Altermatt of the Tulare Police Department.
Authorities believe the theft happened sometime between September 23 and October 7. They laptops are Toshiba brand and at least five years old. The Tulare Salvation Army is hoping someone from the community can help them either replace the computers or donate money so they can buy new ones.
