The Miranda’s Rescue Thrift Store at 1694 Myrtle Avenue in Eureka has been permanently closed, according to a McKinleyville employee. | Photo by Ryan Burns.

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Two of the four local thrift stores connected to Miranda’s Rescue in Fortuna were closed today, and a store employee says they won’t be reopening.

Miranda’s thrift stores, with locations in Fortuna, Eureka, Arcata and McKinleyville, fall under the same nonprofit umbrella as the now infamous Fortuna animal rescue operation, whose founder and owner, Shannon Miranda, is being criminally investigated and sued in civil court for suspected animal cruelty, theft and fraud.

Following online reports that the Eureka and Arcata stores were closed today, the Outpost tried reaching each store by phone. Sure enough, there was no answer at either the Eureka or Arcata location. A woman answered the phone at the Fortuna location, but when this reporter identified himself she said, “I’m sorry, I’m not going to answer any questions,” and hung up.

We had more luck calling the McKinleyville store, where we reached employee Vincent Wormington. Asked about the Arcata and Eureka stores being closed today, he said, “Yeah, they’re permanently closed.”

This differs from what was reported earlier today by Times-Standard reporter Maranda Vargas. Her story says that the Arcata store remains open, with inventory marked half-off, though it has just one employee whose availability determines the store’s hours.

Wormington said he got hired at the McKinleyville thrift store in 2023, when he was still a minor and a high school student, and he said it has been a good job — until recently, anyway. Lately, employees have had to deal with harassing phone calls. He offered an example.

“Someone called asking if we had a couch. I said not right now, but I can ask if Fortuna has any. And they asked if we sold couches with dead dogs in ‘em,” Wormington recalled.

He said that, in the three years he’s worked at the store, he’s never met Shannon Miranda. His employer never set foot in the store, and Wormington has never visited the animal rescue property. 

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