MEXICO — After 35 years of providing household furnishings and other items to the needy in the River Valley, the Free Store is closed indefinitely because of recent burglaries.

Owner Margaret McNeal said two burglaries in the last three weeks are the reason for her decision to shut down the shop at 33 Roxbury Ave.

The latest break-in was Tuesday evening. McNeal, 57, of Mexico discovered the burglary when she arrived at 6:30 a.m. Wednesday. The burglar or burglars broke a window to get in and stole roughly $10 in cash.

McNeal immediately notified the Police Department, which is investigating.

The store was similarly burglarized and robbed less than three weeks before.

McNeal and her volunteers have decided that the best recourse was to close the store and offer a $200 reward for information leading to the arrest of the person or persons involved. McNeal and the volunteers are putting up the money.

The Free Store, located in a large wooden building  across from the Mexico One-Stop Convenience Store, has provided items such as clothing, furniture, bedding, pots and pans and other household furnishings to people in need.

“My mom, Dorothy Sanchas, started the Free Store out of her vehicle 35 years ago,” McNeal said. “She saw the need to help the poor in the area and people would donate stuff to her to give. My mom would drive her car to areas of town she thought people could most use the donated items,” she said.

“She did this until about 10 years ago,” McNeal said. “It was then that  Don Christianson and his wife saw the important service my mom was doing and bought the old Mexico Knights of Colunbus Building for her to have a permanent location for the Free Store.

“My mom passed away in 2008, and I have been carrying on the legacy,” McNeal said.

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