Thieves steal from the Salvation Army

People go to great lengths to take what is not theirs, but two thieves made a big deal of taking what was, well theirs, and not much of it.

Two men, described as being in their 20s and 30s, stole money from The Salvation Army on Monday afternoon after Red Shield Street Appeal volunteer, Leo Waters, had been taking donations over a two-hour period.

Waters said the pair were acting suspicious around the trolleys near the entrance of Countdown North in Pukekohe where he was collecting donations.

All of a sudden, the younger thief rushed in, grabbed the donation bucket and sprinted to a car that was waiting nearby.

A Countdown customer took down the registration number of the vehicle - the Sallies said a police check of the registration came back, and the late model Mazda had been reported stolen.

Waters said: ’’I kind of froze because I couldn’t really do much about it.

‘‘It was a shock, as I am sure it was to the other people nearby. I kind of felt pretty angry that someone would (stoop) that low.’’

Pukekohe Salvation Army Lieutenant Ted Kim said it was a shame the thieves decided to steal from their charity as The Salvation Army aims to combat the issues around poverty and social distress.

‘‘[The Salvation Army] collects money for people who are in need. They could have come to us and asked for help - we could have provided a better way to help them rather than stealing from us.’’

It is unclear the amount of money the thieves took, but a calculated collection average of $50 per hour means the thieves took off with around $100.

The Salvation Army, which has been operating in Pukekohe for 124 years, has preventative methods in place to stop thefts of this nature from occurring, but a lack of volunteers means it can become hard for two people to man a collection table at once, said Kim.

‘‘We will just carry on as usual. I believe (this) can happen to everyone. We are grateful that nobody was hurt during the incident yesterday.’’

Although Waters said: ‘‘I don’t know if I will be in a rush to go back to that Count Down.’’

The incident has been reported to police.