Thieves Rob Fall River Pet Shop, Dozens Of Fish Killed
FALL RIVER (CBS) - It was a heartbreaking site for a local pet shop owner. Dozens of fish died when thieves broke into Animal Instincts in Fall River and smashed a tank. One thief seemed especially interested in hurting innocent creatures.
It's a family run business, specializing in exotic pets.
Bob Schenck can tell you all about any of the animals he sells. But he can't explain why someone would want to kill dozens of fish and coral reefs.
"It doesn't make sense," said Schenck. "We wait on people hand and foot. We bend over backwards for every single customer."
Pictures show the mess left behind by the four adults early Wednesday morning. Worse than the smashed front door, missing money and cash registers, one guy took a pipe to a giant fish tank.
"He actually went through the painstaking work to grab that last piece of glass and break it out so the rest of the water poured out," explained Schenck.
As soon as he walked into the room with the tanks, Bob says he could smell something was wrong. It took about 25 people an entire day to clean up the mess made by the tank.
The lone survivor of the smashing is a fish named Big Blue.
He says the fish, "survived in this little bit of water on the left side with no gravel, just flopping around."
Eighteen cameras are installed in the store, but police have asked the shop not to share the video. Bob says the video almost made him want to give up and close the shop. The damage was in the thousands and that was before security upgrades to windows and doors.
"The whole system has been upgraded but what a shame to have to go to this level to run a pet store," he says.
If you have any information on who did this, you're asked to call Fall River Police.
