Childrens Hospital Thrift Shop Closes After String of Thefts : Reseda: Crime took a toll on the 38-year-old charity’s finances and on volunteers’ peace of mind.

Five truncated mannequins stood naked in the store window. A bowling ball rested on an otherwise empty bookcase. And a lone sign remained taped to the glass door: “There is no money in the store at night.”

These were the last testaments to the Childrens Hospital Thrift Shop--a 38-year-old Reseda institution that closed its doors Tuesday after a series of five burglaries caused hundreds of dollars in damage and drove away volunteers too frightened to work there.

“We all feel bad,” said Sylvia Watson, president of the group of volunteers who ran the shop. “It’s crying time.”

The thrift shop was run by the Valley Heart Guild to raise money for Childrens Hospital Los Angeles, a 331-bed pediatric treatment facility.

The guild is one of 32 nonprofit groups dedicated to organizing charity events for the hospital, including dinner dances and debutante balls. Four other Childrens Hospital thrift shops run by other guilds remain open throughout Southern California.

But volunteers at the Reseda shop--many of whom joined the guild 20 or 30 years ago after their children were treated at the hospital--said they had no choice but to close their store on Sherman Way.

Revenues at the store declined during the recession, and many volunteers left active duties because of family or health problems, Watson said. The guild could have handled those problems, however, had it not been hit by a wave of five burglaries in seven months that left volunteers reeling, Watson said.

“The money that should be going to Childrens Hospital is going to repairs,” store employee Betty Brammer said. “I never knew what I was going to face when I opened the door.” Police records show reports of five burglaries, attempted burglaries and petty thefts since June. Other reports that may have been filed were not immediately accessible, police said.

Watson said that burglars entered the store three times through the roof, removing a ceiling panel in the restroom to crawl in. Once, they broke into the business next door and punched a hole in the wall to get into the thrift shop. Another time, the burglars apparently took a grocery cart, loaded it with a cement parking stop and rammed it through the glass-paneled back door, Watson said.

Not that there was much to steal. The first time, burglars took $53 in cash and the last time they escaped with $153 worth of costume jewelry, Watson said. During several escapades, the burglars picked up only $5 or $6 in petty cash.

Volunteers tried to stop the break-ins, appealing to would-be criminals with signs saying the store had no money as well as one that scolded, “When you steal from this store, you steal from the children.”

But the burglaries continued, damaging the building and destroying volunteers’ morale.

“A lot of them were very skittish because they were afraid that someone was going to point a gun in their face and demand money,” said Ruth Gradle, a volunteer who ran the shop. “It just got to be an insurmountable problem.”

Gradle said that she had difficulty persuading some volunteers to continue working at the store. Late last year, faced with the prospect of signing a year’s lease on the property, the volunteers voted to close the shop, Gradle said.

The Valley Heart Guild is expected to disband next month. Founded in 1948, the guild originally ran a thrift store in North Hollywood with three other Valley guilds, Gradle said. After the store moved to Reseda several years later, the Valley Heart Guild took over running it. The store moved to its last Reseda address eight years ago.

Over the years, Watson said, the Valley Heart Guild dropped other charity events and concentrated solely on the thrift shop.

To continue their efforts, some Valley Heart members may start working in the gift shop at the hospital. Others said they will donate to the hospital while supporting charitable activities run by other guilds.

But for the faithful customers who continued to say their goodbys Tuesday, there is no way to replace the shop.

“These ladies were truly angels because they gave so much of themselves for children,” said Ann Nichols, who has shopped at the store and made donations since her son was treated at the hospital 20 years ago. “It feels like a part of me has been torn away.”