Donations fit for the dump

Dirty nappies and soiled mattresses are among items being dumped at charity shops.

But it’s not only dumping that’s become a problem.

Looters have also been caught on video sifting through items at Hospice Waikato stores, with one group of thieves loading their trailer with donated goods. The charity’s chief executive is fed up, and he’s calling on police to prosecute the offenders.

Craig Tamblyn said they have eight shops in the Waikato but the problem was particularly bad in Cambridge.

‘‘We were shocked to see on video people coming in with trailers, going through our stuff and you know, we do want police to prosecute those people because they are obviously doing it on purpose.’’

Last week, there were dozens of black bags filled with rubbish and food scraps.

‘‘The biggest issue we’ve got is people are not going to the rubbish tip. The money we raise is to look after patients that are going to die – it’s to support those patients and the family of those terminally ill patients’’.

Tamblyn said he noticed an increase in people dumping rubbish at the end of the university year. He said it’s not only students who should take the blame though, several of the rubbish bags have dirty nappies in them.

‘‘We can’t have the rubbish sitting there so we end up having to use our delivery truck to get rid of it’’.

Tamblyn said he understands going to the tip may be expensive but that doesn’t give people an excuse to dump rubbish at their shops.

He said if people would like to donate goods, it would be best to do so when the shop is open. Or you can arrange to have goods picked up.

Police said they had received a report of items being stolen from outside the Hospice shop in Cambridge. They are reviewing the security footage.