TEXAS COMPUTERS STOLEN Thousands In Property Stolen From Dallas Daycare - cbs11tv.com:

Sep 1, 2009 10:02 pm US/Central
Thousands In Property Stolen From Dallas Daycare

DALLAS (CBS 11 / TXA 21) ―Thieves have taken advantage of society's weakest victims. Someone broke into a Dallas child care center Monday night and stole thousands of dollars in toys, games and educational material.

For now, they're playing with toys their parents and possibly grandparents are familiar with at the Riding Rainbows Child Development Center on Buckner Boulevard. That's because the computer center has no computers and there are no TV's to watch educational videos on. "We're still finding stuff that they've taken," explained owner Carolyn Patterson. "We had nothing left, so we had to spend the day outside."

The computers and televisions were just some of the things discovered missing after workers found a broken window at the child care center. In all, some $10,000 worth of property was taken. "Heartless. I didn't expect them to come in and be as heartless," Patterson said sadly.

As children played outside Patterson and her employees spent time trying to determine what was stolen during the overnight break in.
Parents are appalled that the clearly marked daycare center would be a target of criminals. "They work hard to have nice things for the children and it's unfortunate and it's not fair," said parent Anneka Rolfe.

Riding Rainbows is more than a daycare center; it's a learning environment to help kids get ahead. "When you take stuff from kids, you know we got computers and everything because this is what they need now to compete in the world," Patterson said.

The break in happened at a time when security cameras were being installed at the center, so there is no video of the crime.

It will take time and insurance money to replace what was taken. Unfortunately that means children at the center face the possibility of falling behind others their age