‘I am not recovering’: Repeated burglaries jeopardizing Las Vegas Valley small business

LAS VEGAS, Nev. (FOX5) – One stolen truck and four stolen generators later, the owner of a Las Vegas Valley mobile grooming business says the business is struggling to stay afloat.

Whitney James has owned Whitney’s Paw-lished Pets Mobile Grooming for over ten years.

The idea is to make the grooming process less stressful for dogs by giving each animal one-on-one attention. But a string of burglaries is now jeopardizing James’s creation.

“Every time we think we’re in the recovery stage, we get hit again,” James says. “I am one thing happening from putting my small business out.”

The Las Vegas Metropolitan Police Department reports show James’s truck was stolen, and then gutted, from outside her salon near Flamingo Road and Jones Boulevard in December.

The truck was eventually recovered, but James says it was damaged beyond repair, and the generator inside the truck was gone.

She decided to move her fleet of trucks to a storage facility about a block away.

“I thought we’d be safer behind a gate and some sort of security and control,” she says.

Despite the presence of a gate, police reports show two more generators were stolen: one in March, and another in April. Each generator is valued at around $3,000, according to those reports.

Feeling frustrated, James moved the fleet back to its original location outside her salon, where another generator was stolen mid-June.

“To be hit this many times within a six month time frame, it is awful, and I am not recovering,” James says.

Contrary to what James is experiencing, Metro’s crime statistics show property crime trends in the zip code where this is occurring are steady.

“We’re not sure if it’s an inside job, if somebody is watching us. I mean, I have a lot of females on our staff,” James says.

Metro Police say two of the four investigations are open. Two were closed because all leads were exhausted.

Anyone with tips regarding the investigations are urged to contact Crimestoppers at 702-385-5555 or online.

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