Opportunity Village vandalized twice, items stolen
Opportunity Village was created to help people with disabilities in Las Vegas, but the financially disabled criminal has never been its target audience.
Despite that, the charity's main campus at 6300 W. Oakey Blvd, near the College of Southern Nevada campus at Charleston Boulevard and Torrey Pines Drive, was vandalized Tuesday night for the second time in about a week.
"It's just been one hit after another," said Carole Hattar, spokeswoman for the organization.
Hattar said eight Opportunity Village vehicles were vandalized. Toolboxes were stolen, and dashboard consoles were ripped away, she said.
Hattar said Opportunity Village shares a parking lot with the CSN campus. Campus police were investigating, she said.
About a week ago, Hattar said two adults were caught by campus police. The suspects were pushing wheelbarrows filled with items stolen from the charity and said they got them from a nearby trash bin.
Hattar didn't know the value of items lost in that burglary. She said it wasn't reported to the media because the charity hoped it was a one-time incident.
"Now we don't know," she said. "We're not sure if it's someone with a grudge against us or something else. It was small things before, but this is the largest," she said.
The burglary is the latest development in a string of bad luck for the charity.
In December, the charity's Magical Forest -- its major annual fundraiser -- was closed for four days because of rainstorms. The estimated loss was $250,000.
In July, the charity's Main Street thrift store was destroyed by a fire of undetermined cause.
The thrift store since has reopened at 4600 Meadows Lane. Last week, officials reported that the new store is doing "extremely well."
Contact reporter Mike Blasky at mblasky@reviewjournal.com or 702-383-0283.
