07:29 AM CST on Thursday, March 11, 2004

ST. LOUIS (AP) - Like a hammer crashing down on a thumb, the crime made this area's Habitat for Humanity throb, at least for a while.

Crafty thieves carved their way into seven locked trailers used by the builders of homes for low-income families, making off with $20,000 in power tools and other construction equipment as the group geared up for its most-ambitious building of any summer here.

To many, the boldness of ripping off a charity was numbing.

"They didn't just steal from Habitat; they're stealing from low-income families," Kimberly McKinney, Habitat-St. Louis' chief, said Wednesday, a day after workers discovered the theft. "It's definitely very saddening."

Still, she pledged, "it's not going to deter the build in any way."

"We're just re-energized knowing we need to be in this community."

And they're invigorated by an outpouring - some may call it humanity for Humanity - by folks who heard of the crime detailed by St. Louis media outlets and came out of the woodwork to ease the squeeze.

Home-improvement giants Home Depot and Lowe's each have offered $5,000 worth of shopping sprees to Habitat. New York financial services giant Citigroup also pledged $5,000 - and is collecting donations from its workers - to replace the tools taken or to defray costs of new, better storage.

"It's been a roller coaster of emotions between the discovery yesterday and the community stepping up today," McKinney said. "We'll pick ourselves up, dust ourselves off and do what our mission calls for us to do."

Police on Wednesday continued investigating the theft that occurred between late last week and Tuesday morning while the trailers were parked in a north St. Louis area where Habitat expects to build 20 homes in July, its largest local building blitz.

McKinney said the thieves appeared skilled at raiding construction sites, apparently scaling the five locked trailers and slicing large holes in each roof to climb through. Burglars also entered two office trailers by cutting holes in the sides of those units.

"None of them went through the doors," McKinney said.

The thieves made off with virtually any tool and equipment piece they could squeeze through the ceiling holes and cart off, in some cases leaving behind the empty plastic cases to some tools and large compressors too heavy to lift.

Also taken: a fax machine, office refrigerator, microwave oven and easels.

"They took everything of street value," McKinney said.

Kyle Hunsberger, the local Habitat's construction manager, said the missing tools were easily identifiable, permanently engraved with "HFH" or "HFHSL." But few believe the items will resurface, suspecting the culprits likely were in the construction industry or connected to it enough to be able to fence the tools fairly easily.

No matter, Hunsberger says as Habitat looks to replace the destroyed trailers with seven all-steel storage units, each costing about $8,000.

"This just reinforces the fact that our presence is needed here, that it's much more necessary now," he said. "Everyone has really stepped forward since this happened, and that's an empowering feeling.

"We're just gonna keep plugging away."

Habitat for Humanity-St. Louis