UPDATE: A kind person donated a new Mickey Mouse, as well as a Minnie when she heard about the theft on the news. She is from a nonprofit organization called Mountain Bear Fan Club in Oakhurst, who donates stuffed animals and bears to victims.
“I was just overwhelmed by such a kind gesture. It really made my day,” says Jim Fishback, president of the Fresno Piano Gallery.
A burglary at another Fresno business was captured on security video.
A suspect is seen breaking a window at the Fresno Piano Gallery, near Herndon and Blackstone.
But the crook left the pianos alone and instead stole a stuffed Mickey Mouse figure.
This all happened early last Friday morning, around 2 a.m., but the owner is still in shock that someone would go to this length for what he says is a $25 stuffed animal.
In the disturbing surveillance video of the burglary last Friday at the Fresno Piano Gallery, you can see a person, smashing open a window with an object.
Then stealing the Mickey Mouse off of a $24,000 white Yamaha piano.
“That’s what’s so crazy, I sat there in disbelief when I looked at the security camera, because of all the things that could have been taken it was a stuffed animal,” says Jim Fishback, president of the Fresno Piano Gallery.
Fishback, says moments later, video shows police entering, guns drawn, but no other suspects in sight.
Photos show the aftermath, lots and lots of glass.
“We spent about half a day cleaning the inside of the piano just taking it apart and cleaning all the glass fragments out of it,” he says.
Now four days later, Fishback missing the stores beloved mascot of three years.
“We would put him on different pianos from time to time, maybe we’d have a grand piano that we put him inside with his hands coming over the piano, kids coming with their parent to the store loved him,” Fishback explained.
And though Mickey was loved, he says the cost of damage, nearly $5,000, is more than Mickey’s worth.
“Geez, I would have given him the stuffed animal to save all the headache we’ve gone through,” Fishback expressed.
In all their years in business, Fishback says they haven’t really had any problems.
As for a new mascot, he does not plan on getting another one any time soon.
As for the suspect, police say if caught, he could face felony burglary charges.