Towson ARTS Collective fell victim to a burglar with discerning tastes. The non-profit's president just wishes the burglar had better ways to express them.

"What are people going to do with artwork? It's one of a kind, it's easily identifiable," Brian Truax said. "It's just like community art. We're not the Met."

Sometime between Oct. 13 and 14, seven pieces, valued at around $2,000, were stolen from the collective's basement gallery below the Towson Framing Gallery and the Greene Turtle on York Road.

Since then, Truax said, he's spent about $1,300 boosting security with new doors, locks and alarms to protect the 30 to 60 pieces (depending on the show) that the gallery may hold). All those upgrades, unfortunately, eat at the volunteer-run non-profit's bottom line.

"We're looking to move forward and make our organization better and the only way to do that is to raise money," said Kate Mansperger, the collective's vice president.

That's money Towson ARTS Collective is hoping to raise in a Feb. 10 fundraiser at 7 West Bistro Grille. Local businesses and artists are contributing items for auction—even two of the artists whose work was stolen, in a Capra-esque show of support, are creating stuff to help raise money for TAC.

"I think it's absolutely wonderful that a lot of the artists, they believe in what we're doing here. They undersand that we're a good organization and yeah, stupid stuff happens every once in a while," Truax said. "Everyone helps out and everyone's really involved. That's kind of the key ingredient and it's the element that gives a lot of life to an arts organization."

The happy hour fundraiser will include the auction, a band and a 50-50 raffle. Tickets range from $20 to $40 and can be purchased through TAC's website.

As for the burglar, police followed up with Truax and never found anything, he said. But Truax is pretty sure who it was. According to police reports, he described the suspect as a black male, roughly 5-foot-6 and 160 pounds. He told Patch the man was lurking around, acting "protective" well before the thefts happened.

"I caught him walking down here once and I caught him wandering around down here," he said. "And just with that info is not enough info to say that he was the one that did it but to find someone down here that many times and trying to enter back in is kind of... it's fishy, it's really fishy."

On Christmas Eve, Truax saw the man again when he tried to enter through a reinforced door. Truax chased him off with a baseball bat. If the suspect wants to take in local art, Truax advises him to take some classes. Just not at TAC.

"He can practice that in an institution," he said.