(UPDATE: 1/15/2020, 10:28 a.m.): The Bayonne Police Department confirmed that they recovered the van last night, January 14 at 9:30 p.m. in Jersey City. An investigation is ongoing.

A Liberty Humane Society van was stolen Monday night during an animal control call in Bayonne, officials said.

The theft occurred around 8 p.m. on West 48th Street. An employee of the Jersey City nonprofit left the car running with the keys in the ignition while inside a home, a Bayonne police spokesman told The Jersey Journal.

No animals were in the vehicle at the time it was stolen, Liberty Humane’s director of operations Kim Saunders said.

The organization uses the vehicle for animal control calls throughout Jersey City, Hoboken, and Bayonne, Saunders said. She declined to provide a dollar value of the equipment inside.

“We are saddened and disappointed that someone would steal a van from a nonprofit organization that is committed to serving the community,” Saunders said.

The van, a white 2016 Ford Transit Connect, is lettered with the nonprofit’s logo and information. Anyone with information is encouraged to call the Bayonne Police Department’s detective bureau at 201-858-6925 or contact the department’s anonymous tip line at 877-900-8477 or via text at 274-637 using the keywords TIP BPD.