WARMTH FLOWS FOR COLD PUP COMMUNITY SHOWS OWNER BURGLARS' CRUELTY UNUSUAL.

Byline: GIDEON RUBIN

Staff Writer

LANCASTER -- The contributions keep coming for the victim of a Lancaster burglary in which cold-hearted culprits put her Chihuahua into a freezer.

Kimberly Holzer, a Lancaster woman whose tiny 2-year-old pet Roxy survived being left in an industrial freezer when Holzer's home was burglarized on Jan.31, was presented $800 this week from Lancaster sheriff's station employees.

Holzer's east Lancaster home was ransacked during the burglary, and the intruders destroyed $600 worth of new maternity clothes. The wife of an Air Force technical sergeant stationed in Afghanistan, she is pregnant with twins.

Holzer said she was overwhelmed by the deputies' presentation Wednesday morning, noting that she had only been told in advance that station employees purchased toys for her dog.

"It means a lot," Holzer said. "The generosity in the Sheriff's Department has been amazing, and it's not just them. A lot of people have helped."

Edwards Air Force Base employees cooked dinner for her and repaired a broken door lock. A San Fernando Valley-based security company installed a free alarm service on Saturday.

The $800 was raised by sheriff's Deputy Melissa Sullivan and her partner, Deputy Lee Schriever, who responded last week to reports of the burglary at Holzer's home. Sullivan found Roxy in the freezer.

Sullivan said the donations she and Schriever collected far exceeded the goal of raising a few hundred dollars. A gift bag of toys for the dog also was presented to Holzer.

"We just felt it was important to do this because it was so unbelievable how disgusting people could be," Sullivan said.

Sullivan said a neighbor who reported the burglary in progress could be eligible for a $1,000 reward from Lancaster city government for providing information leading to the arrests of five suspects in the case: a man, 20, and four minors, all from Lancaster. The reward is given in a conviction.

Anyone with information about a suspected burglar or robber can call the sheriff's tip hotline at (661)948-COPS.

"I hope something good can come out of this whole incident," Sullivan said. "If people see something that's not supposed to be happening, call us."

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