Thieves have stolen two safes containing donations and takings from a charity shop, just a week before it was due to celebrate a year of being in Spalding Market Place.
St Barnabas Hospice Charity Shop was broken into and raided sometime between Monday evening and Tuesday morning.
Takings from the previous day totalling £800 were taken as well as the contents of a collection tin, the contents of which had yet to be counted. A 100 scratch cards which the charity sells for £1 each were also taken.
It’s a year since the charity shop moved from New Street to the Grade II listed former White Hart pub premises and set up an in-store cafe. To celebrate the anniversary a host of events are planned to mark the anniversary next week including a children’s colouring competition and special birthday offers in the cafe.
The exact figure of how much money has been stolen has not been revealed.
A spokesman for St Barnabas said: “We are devastated to learn yesterday that our Spalding charity shop and cafe was broken into overnight.
“Access was gained by damaging a door and our two safes were then removed from the wall with crowbars and stolen. These safes contained the day’s takings, plus a full collection box.
“Next week, the store is due to celebrate its first birthday since it moved to the premises at 19 Market Place. We have had overwhelming community support since the move and it breaks our hearts that money which has been so generously given to us, has been stolen in such a cold-hearted way.
“We are asking members of the public to rally-round next week and celebrate the store’s first birthday in a positive way. Join us all week for birthday cake and activities, whilst bringing joy and love back into the charity shop.”
Caroline Peach, retail manager at St Barnabas Hospice, said: “After our Spalding shop moved to the Market Place and was so well received by the community, this news is so disheartening.
“The shop team and charity as a whole are shocked and saddened at this act of vandalism and theft, which is essentially stealing care from the local community.
“It has cost the charity and community dearly.
“If anyone has any information that they feel might be relevant to this crime, we’d be very grateful.”
Two sets of our “Lucky Ewe” scratch cards have also been stolen from the Spalding shop and anyone seen selling them outside of the shop is asked to contact police.
A spokesman continued: “Please be vigilant as we only sell these in our shops. If you notice anyone selling these in a location which isn’t a St Barnabas Hospice charity shop, please contact the Police or Hospice immediately.”
A spokesperson for Lincolnshire Police, said: “A number of enquiries are ongoing in relation to this incident and we would like to hear from anyone who might have seen or heard anything in the area of the shop overnight, or anyone who has any information that can help the enquiry.”
Anyone with any information is asked to contact the police on the non-emergency number 101, quoting incident number 68 of 07/08/2018 or by clicking on the email link [email protected] and putting the reference 68 of 07/08/2018 in the subject box.
Or they can contact the independent charity Crimestoppers anonymously on 0800 555 111 or on-line at crimestoppers-uk.org
