CHARITY shop volunteers in Eastleigh are pleading with thieves to stop
tipping out bins and stealing donations left outside for collection.
Raiders regularly leave broken glass and toys scattered outside the rear entrance to shops following a night of scavenging.
The Daily Echo reported earlier this month how Eastleigh High Street's Save The Children shop is often left with a morning clean-up job of rubbish and damaged goods that cannot be sold.
Now workers at other shops in the town have come forward and spoken of their anger at the
people who leave them with the daily nightmare.
Staff in the National Children's Home charity shop in Market Street said it has been a problem for years.
"We reported it to the police about two years ago, but it is still a problem for us and now we have all had enough," said assistant shop manager Gary Birkbeck.
The bin is kept at the rear of the NCH shop in Wells Road - a service road for shops between Market Street and High Street which has footpaths linking the shopping streets and is monitored by CCTV.
Shop assistant Julie Barson said: "It's not that they want to take anything; it's the mess that they leave behind that's the problem.
"It's dangerous as they break everything and sometimes pile it against the door."
Other charity shops in the town have said they also suffer.
Eastleigh High Street's Oxfam shop regularly has donations damaged, and even has to deal with vandals using the rear entrance to the store as a toilet.
And Elaine Hunt, of the High Street's British Heart Foundation shop, said: "We have people regularly going through (the bin) and leaving sharp things out the back."
Eastleigh town centre manager Dennis Chandler said: "We have caught some people going through charity shop bins before on our CCTV, and we send the footage to the police and they make a decision on how to respond."
Comments: Our rules
We want our comments to be a lively and valuable part of our community - a place where readers can debate and engage with the most important local issues. The ability to comment on our stories is a privilege, not a right, however, and that privilege may be withdrawn if it is abused or misused.
Please report any comments that break our rules.
Read the rules hereComments are closed on this article