Burglars Steal $8,000 From Safe at Struggling VFW Post

Burglars ransacked a Veterans of Foreign Wars post in Simi Valley, making off with $8,000 in cash--including $2,000 collected for victims of the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks.

“Members would just toss a few dollars in here and there to help out the families left behind,” said Hank Calderon, administrator of the post on Los Angeles Avenue. “And now, poof! It’s all gone.”

The 250-member club has struggled to make mortgage payments for years and may not recover from the loss, Calderon said. Insurance will cover property damage but cannot replace cash stolen from a safe, he said.

“This post is really poor. We’re old guys who are retired,” he said. “We’re hoping the community can help us out.”

Calderon said he had a sinking feeling when he arrived Tuesday morning to find the back door broken in and glass all over the floor. He checked a small metal safe inside an office and found that someone had removed the hinges and emptied its contents.

Besides the donations, the post had about $3,000 in receipts from a state lottery machine it operates, Calderon said. The other cash was earnings from the post’s bar, he said.

Police dusted for fingerprints, but concluded that the thieves probably wore gloves, Calderon said. Coin boxes for two video games were also busted open, he said.

“These were not kids,” he said. “This was done by someone who knew what they were doing.”

Investigators believe someone pried the back door open in the early morning hours, said Sgt. Bob Gardener of the Simi Valley Police Department. The same tool was probably used to pry the hinges off the safe, Gardener said.

Police have no suspects, he said.

“There has been no rash of burglaries,” he said. “We have commercial burglaries periodically.”

The VFW post opened in 1969 and is the only one in Simi Valley. It has never before been burglarized, Calderon said. On Wednesday, the talk among those stopping by for a drink was whether the post would have to shut down because of its bad luck.

Calderon said he hopes the community will respond with donations to help the club get back on its feet. One way they could help, he said, is by stopping by for a drink.

“If everybody in town had one drink, that’d be 10,000 bucks right there,” he joked. “So we’re inviting everybody down.”

Mayor Bill Davis said he is sure council members and other city officials will take part in any fund-raising drive to help the post. The club has long been a positive civic presence, the mayor said.

“I’d be happy as a lark to drop off $100 myself,” Davis said. “Hopefully, we can get them some help to get them back on their feet.”