Christmas donations stolen in Catholic cathedral burglary
‘‘They could have just called us and we would have given them food, no questions asked.’’ Mike Keenan
Thousands of dollars of food destined for disadvantaged families over the Christmas holidays has been stolen from a Palmerston North church.
The Cathedral of the Holy Spirit on Broadway Ave was burgled at the weekend, when thieves ransacked the foodbank run by the Society of Saint Vincent De Paul.
The society’s Palmerston North president Mike Keenan discovered the burglary at 9am on Sunday, when he went to fetch Raro for children to drink after mass.
Keenan saw the door to the foodbank was ajar, with the lights on, and thought a volunteerwas busy making a food parcel.
Keenan’s heart sank the moment he stepped through the door and saw food strewn across the floor.
‘‘It was hugemess. Food had been tipped out everywhere and dropped as the buglers took what they wanted.
‘‘There were two panels removed from one of the windows, which must have been how they got in.’’
Keenan said the burglary happened sometime after midnight on Saturday, after the last volunteer left that weekend.
It was hard to tell how much food was taken, because the foodbank didn’t keep detailed ledgers.
At least $1200 of donations were missing from what volunteers could remember, but it was likely to be more, he said.
Among the stolen food were 10 of the 15 Christmas hamper parcels for which children of St James’ Catholic School held a food drive to provide.
Keenan said the burglars had mainly targeted the sweets, such as biscuits, chocolate and jam, and took all the coffee in the foodbank.
Most of the food the burglars tossed asidewas in cans and packets. ‘‘It’s disappointing... That’s about 20 families we’d normally help out over the next couple ofmonths that we won’t be able to give food parcels to.’’
Keenan said although the foodbank was discretely placed, security was going to be seriously stepped up after the break in.
He hoped the burglars would return the looted donations, although Keenan thought their own needs had to be bad for them to steal from a church.
‘‘But they didn’t need to go to this extreme.
‘‘They could have just called us and we would have given them food, no questions asked.’’
Senior Sergeant Darren Paki said the police wanted to hear from anyone who might know what happened. Anyone with information on the robbery can call police on 105 and quote file number 201129/3944.