AED swiped from Eldred thrift shop

Shoplifting hasn’t really been a problem at the Kunkletown Thrift Shop.

The shop is staffed by volunteers and located in the Eldred Township Community Center, a former elementary school. The building also hosts a food pantry.

But last week, according to volunteers, a customer decided to walk off with the building’s lifesaving defibrillator, which was donated by a local ambulance company.

“There are no words. What was he thinking?” said Donna Borger Deihl, a volunteer with the thrift shop.

Deihl said a customer came into the store last Thursday, with a woman and three children. Two of them were in a stroller.

After the man left, another volunteer noticed that the defibrillator and first aid kit were gone.

Luckily the building is equipped with cameras. When they checked, the video showed the man opening the clear door containing the AED and first aid kit, and stowing them in the back of the stroller.

The volunteers immediately contacted the township supervisors, who are looking into the theft. Supervisor Gary Hoffman wasn’t available to comment on Monday.

Deihl said thefts are uncommon at the community-based thrift shop.

“Nothing like this at all, this sort of blew our mind,” Deihl said.

The defibrillator was a donation from the West End Ambulance when the building opened as a community center.

The devices, in conjunction with cardiopulmonary resuscitation, are proven to give people a better chance to survive a cardiac episode. In a cardiac arrest, every minute that passes without CPR and defibrillation reduces a person’s chance of survival by 7 percent to 10 percent, according to the American Heart Association.

Coincidentally, police in the Lehigh Valley arrested a man who was also using a baby stroller to steal electronics, this time from a Target store in Nazareth. Deihl wants to see if it could be the same man.

Deihl is asking anyone who may have information about the theft to call her at 570-620-5726.

Ironically, the theft might be a sign of the thrift store’s success. Deihl said the shop recently started a map where customers can mark where they live.

“It’s amazing how far they come. Our thrift store is just a great little thrift store,” Deihl said.