BURGLARS STEAL TOOLS, HOPE FROM HABITAT.

Byline: Orith Goldberg Staff Writer

PACOIMA - All Eva Mendez wanted for Christmas was a place her family could call home.

Mendez, 38, couldn't wait to move her three daughters and her parents out of a two-bedroom, one-bath Panorama City home and into a brand new four-bedroom, three-bath duplex - one of 53 homes the nonprofit Habit for Humanity is building in Pacoima.

On Tuesday, she learned burglars had stolen her dream.

When workers arrived at the site Tuesday morning, they found several of Habitat for Humanity's construction trailers ransacked and at least $20,000 worth of computers, equipment and tools missing. It's a burglary, officials say, that will delay building by months and sap the nonprofit organization of funds it doesn't have.

The group, which builds homes for low-income families, had planned to turn the first 10 homes over to their new owners by Christmas.

``My hope has been that we would be able to move in by Christmas, but now there is nothing we can do,'' Mendez said. ``A lot of my brothers and sisters, everybody was going to get together and celebrate and it was going to be a big family event.''

Now officials say they'll be lucky to have the homes done by March.

``Now we have to come up with money just for the stuff to keep us going every day,`` said Matt Febbi, an ex-Marine who has donated his time and tools to help build what will be Habitat for Humanity's largest development project in the nation.

Febbi lost an estimated $2,000 worth of tools he stored at his trailer on the site.

``It broke my heart. The first thing I thought of is, there is no way we're going to make Christmas,'' he said.

``It'll take nothing short of a miracle now.''

Burglars broke through fencing and into the group's trailers and stole computers, tools, television equipment and items critical to the construction - including a computer server that held vital records.

Habitat officials, already strapped for money as donations have dwindled in the wake of the East Coast terrorist attacks, found items missing in four of the eight trailers on their 3.4-acre property in Pacoima on Tuesday morning.

Papers were strewn about the floor in the main office trailer, with drawers opened, desks moved and chairs toppled.

Los Angeles Police Department Foothill Division officers took a report of the missing items but offered little hope of finding the stolen goods.

John Lasso, a construction supervisor at the site in the 11200 block of Borden Avenue, said Habitat officials were still trying to recoup from a previous burglary over Labor Day weekend in which a van was broken into and about $5,000 worth of tools was stolen. This most recent burglary will set officials back even further, he said.

Habitat officials said they will try to retrace the document files stored in the computer system, including financial records, volunteer lists and the accounting system.

``It's unbelievable,'' said executive director Terri-Lei Robertson, executive director of Habitat for Humanity for the San Fernando, Santa Clarita and Antelope valleys. ``We have to take all of our invoices and submit them to the (U.S.) Housing Department to reimburse us, but all of that information was in our computers.''

Some computers were left untouched, but the server in which all of the information was stored had been taken. A locked file cabinet holding proceeds from a fund-raising yard sale over the weekend was also left untouched.

Frank DiDomenico, a construction supervisor on the site, said when he arrived at the property at 6:45 a.m. Tuesday, he knew something was wrong when he saw that a chain locking a chain-link gate had been cut and that someone had cut the combination locks on the site's trailers.

DiDomenico stepped inside one of the trailers and found it had been ransacked.

``Tables and chairs were upside down and computers were missing,'' he said.

Carol Smith, who works in community resource development for the organization, said a television and VCR she used to show potential donors footage of what the organization is all about had been taken as well.

``It's so hard to think that these things happen,'' she said.

The organization helps families by building - along with the buyers of homes - affordable housing. To qualify, families must live in substandard conditions and must make 60 percent or less of the median family income in the Los Angeles area - roughly between $22,800 for a single person and $35,340 for a family of five.

Nicolas Enriquez, 37, had been going out almost every Saturday to work on his home, which he hoped to move his wife and three daughters into for Christmas.

``(My daughters) ask me almost every Saturday if the house is going to be ready for Christmas,'' said Enriquez, who now lives with his family in a cramped mobile home. ``I've been telling them, we hope.''

Now, Enriquez said he'll have to tell them they'll have to wait a while longer.

``If it'll take a little longer,'' he said, ``there's nothing we can do.''

Anyone wishing to make donations can call [phone].

CAPTION(S):

2 photos

Photo:

(1 -- color) A cut lock is evidence of a break-in at one of the office trailers for Habitat for Humanity in Pacoima.

(2) Eva Mendez looks sadly over the beginnings of her new home, which she now will have to wait months to move into.

Andy Holzman/Staff Photographer