Charity storage units ransacked
Burnham: Raid could cost RSPCA hundreds of pounds
Staff at a Burnham’s RSPCA charity shop are asking for the public’s help in replacing funds lost due to a potential thief ransacking their storage units and causing hundreds of pounds’ worth of damage.
The mindless act of vandalism was carried out on Monday night in a small, private car park to the rear of the shop.
Nothing was taken, but the perpetrator damaged the units’ frames and locks and caused the items within the unit to become wet and unsellable.
They also made such a mess that it took a store volunteer two hours to clean up on Tuesday morning.
As the land that the units are on is not owned by this branch of the RSPCA it is not covered by insurance and the shop must now find the funds to replace the units.
Store manager Jacqui
Leishman, who recently attended Burnham’s Crime Forum to discuss theft and anti-social prevention methods with other retailers, is in disbelief that this has happened.
“It’s a rag store – where we put rags and rubbish.
“It’s where we put soiled stuff, stuff we can’t sell, shoes that don’t have a match, for instance.
“It’s stuff we can get money for but we can’t sell in the shop.”
“They’ve disturbed all that and we’ve had to throw a lot of it away because it is wet,” added Jacqui.
Whilst Jacqui said that they’d rather not have people donate ‘rags’, some items donated to the shop are classified as unsellable and are passed on to a recycling company.
Across a year the charity raises £5,000 through this scheme and it is a valuable way to help the charity to continue the work it does rescuing and rehoming animals.
Until new storage units can be bought Jacqui and her team will be bringing the rags and rubbish inside.
“Our shop is very small and that is our additional storage that allows us to operate better.
“They’ve broken into it, trashed it and it’s just going to make our jobs so much more difficult,” she said.
“The people in the village have been helpful so far and anything anyone could do to help us find the funds to replace the broken storage would be amazing.”
New storage units and locks will cost at least £500 and people willing to help the charity recoup those costs can do so by donating quality items; signing for gift aid or making a cash donation in store.
CCTV images of the person were logged with Thames Valley Police who said in a statement: “Anybody with any information should contact TVP on 101, quoting incident reference 43240162010”.