Christmas thief missed some of the most valuable items in Bellingham thrift store burglary

BELLINGHAM — A non-profit thrift store in Bellingham was broken into and burgled over Christmas. The Assistance League Bellingham lost an estimated $873 in items from a locked room, along with two 14-karat gold bracelets, the value of which is unknown.

The thief stole items from the storage room that looked valuable, according to Assistance League Bellingham President Sarah Spinks. If there is a bright side, it’s that the thief didn’t know exactly what was valuable, and left some of the more expensive items behind.

The thief was also unable to open a safe in the storage room, although they tried to force it open, damaging the safe so badly it cannot be opened and will need to be replaced.

The thief got into the thrift store without any sign of forced entry.

“This is the sad part, we have a passcode entry, there is no sign of forcible entry anywhere,” Spinks told The Bellingham Herald in a telephone interview. “So we are afraid that somebody got the backdoor code by someone being careless and leaving it out or something like that.”

The code has since been changed, Spinks said.

The thief did not have a key to the storage room that holds expensive items and had to force it open with a sledgehammer and a tire iron, both of which were left behind.

The break-in was discovered by an Assistance League volunteer Monday morning, Dec. 26. Because people were working in the Meridian Street store the afternoon of Saturday, Dec. 24, the break-in must have occurred the night of Christmas Eve, Christmas Day or early Monday morning, according to Spinks.

There are no suspects in the burglary at this time, according to Bellingham Police Lt. Claudia Murphy.