Thieves target New Covenant Lutheran Church school

SCOTTSDALE - Have you heard the saying "thieves have no shame?" Preschoolers and teachers at a Valley school learned it the hard way when someone ripped out their copper pipes.

New Covenant Lutheran Church preschool and kindergarten located on Frank Lloyd Wright Boulevard in Scottsdale, was forced to shut down class for all of their students Thursday because there was no water for the building.

The school believes the bad guys got $50 bucks worth of copper. The sad part is it's going to cost the preschool $2,000 to replace and repair the damage. What's worse is that this is the second time the New Covenant's pipes have been ripped out.

"It's very quick, and they're very good at it,” School and Church Operations Manager Tammy Pefanis said. “It's kinda hard to believe, it really is."

"Teachers were crying, I was crying," School Director Karen Galvin said.

"We all teared up a little bit. It's sad. We had a big day planned," said Pefanis.

New Covenant Preschool told ABC15 they don't have the money to be wasting on fixing senseless damage when there are more important things they need to be buying for the little students.

Hundreds of parents had to find a new place to leave their kids for the day

Since the thefts happened, school officials and police are hoping drivers saw something suspicious between 10:30 p.m. Wednesday and 7:00 a.m. Thursday and will report it to police.