"I'm not sure how they think they're going to get that safe open ...," said Salvation Army Maj. Richard Greene. "It's an old Diebold combination safe. It's a bear."

Greene said it appeared someone used a hatchet to cut a hole big enough to get their arm through and unlocked a door at the back of the warehouse.

The culprits then broke through two other doors. But instead of rummaging through goods, they went directly to the combination safe and carted it off, taking the roughly $1,500 worth of items that were stored inside.

"They used our own dollies to take the safe away," Greene said, "adding insult to injury."

There was a day's worth of deposits inside the safe. The safe also contained the keys and drawers to the registers, which will now have to be replaced, Greene said.

"It's frustrating more than anything else," he said.

As Greene explained, "The Salvation Army is a church with a social service purpose or it's a social service agency with a religious purpose.

"All the different things we do and function with throughout the year is supported by our thrift store,"he said.

That includes helping low-income families pay rent or utilities and some dental care, and donated items at the store sometimes go to people dealing with emergencies, such as house fires.

Greene said they provide about $250,000 worth of services to families in need each year and have to provide $40,000 of the $160,000 worth of dental services that are otherwise donated each year.

Which all makes the theft even more disturbing.

"It's rotten," agreed Fairbanks Police Officer Dave McKillican.

McKillican said tracks, including what seem to be two sets of footprints, indicate a truck was backed up to the rear of the warehouse where the safe and the dollies were loaded aboard.

"We believe it was, at a minimum, two people because they actually broke in, took some furniture dollies and it still would have taken more than one person," he said.

Fairbanks Daily News Miner