On Monday 12th July the Salvation Army were collecting charitiable donations in Packington. Local residents had been asked to put any unwanted clothes, books and bric-a-brac in their designated charity bag, and to leave it on the pavement for their van to collect that day.
Unfortunately, when the van did arrive, at about 4.30pm, they found only a couple of bags from the whole village.
A local resident had put a bag (clearly labelled for the Salavation Army) on the pavement by the house, and then saw a white van and white male aged approx 50 years old collect the items about 1.45pm. She estimated that these Salvation Army bags waiting for collection, were at approx every third house!
The man was definitely not from The Salvation Army, who state that they always collect in pairs (this man was on his own). Also, the legitimate van has "The Salvation Army" logo on the side (whereas the other van was plain white).
The offending man was very confident in his approach and was not suspected until the 'real' collectors later that day were spoken to. They said they usually get quite a lot from Packington and had only had a couple of bags that day.
The police were notified and said this was a growing crime, and that they had just caught one individual who was doing exactly the same and who was making £200,000 a year from it, all tax free of of course!!!
Please make all residents aware - it is an unbelievable crime to be stealing from charity!
Our village response will be to publicise the crime, and our Neighbourhood
Watch Co-Ordinator has suggested how villagers in future could:
a) Use a phone or other digital camera to photograph any and every
charity collector seen, and their vehicles, and in particular to photograph
the vehicle registration numbers.
b) Challenge apparent charity collectors to demonstrate their
identity, bearing in mind that a brazen thief stealing from charity is
likely to appear confident and perhaps even amiable, but unlikely to want to
produce identification that will bear scrutiny.
c) Call 999 if no reasonable identity is forthcoming, as this would
appear to be a crime in progress.
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