NEW ORLEANS — Habitat for Humanity lost thousands of dollars in shingles after they were stolen over the weekend. Those thieves were caught on surveillance.
The video was taken from nearby and captured at 3:18 a.m. Saturday. You can see lights from two trucks as they pull to the back fence at Habitat for Humanity. Four minutes later it appears that two thieves break a slat in the fence and jump over.
You can then see the duo tag-teaming, one appears to grab shingles, and the other throws them over the fence into the bed of the truck. 20 minutes later, the pair finish the job and the video shows them get back in their trucks.
You can see blinking yellow and blue work lights as the pair pull off and turn onto agriculture street. The brazen thieves even passed under two crime cameras.
The slat the thieves broke has since been repaired by Habitat for Humanity.
Habitat for Humanity is a nonprofit which helps build or repair homes.
Jay Huffstatler from the organization says several pallets of shingles were donated to them, and would have helped people in need.
“Overnight we had somebody break the fence and hand carry out over 270 bundles of shingles, which is six pallets of shingles which would help us put roofs on four habitat homes, valued at $15,000," Huffstatler said.
"It's very frustrating knowing that we could’ve done so much with those resources but now they’re gone.”
He says this isn’t the first time they’ve been targeted, a storage unit was also broken into
“Just last week had one broken into and had $4500 worth of construction tools from us.”
New Orleans Police said they’re investigating the theft on Saturday morning.
Huffstatler is urging anyone who may recognize the thieves, or know anyone who suddenly has a lot of singles or new tools to call the police.
He says the organization plans to take steps to protect the business.
"We’re looking at putting in barb wire to put over the fences... also looking at putting in some camera systems,” Huffstatler said.
As for this organization, who relies on donations, they’re left with four homes with no shingles for their roofs.