St Vincent de Paul workers count the cost after thieves ransack donations

Volunteers spent hours on Saturday night and Sunday morning cleaning up after thoughtless thieves took whatever they could and left the rest to be ruined by the rain. 

Bathurst central council president Bob Lulham said he was disappointed the charity had to spend about $200 disposing of items, some still had original tags attached.

“I came up [Saturday night] and people driving through Aldi were just shaking their heads in disbelief,” he said. 

“People had ratted through it all and spread it all over the footpath.”

Volunteers filled two large skip bins of rubbish which the charity will pay to have collected.

He urged people not to leave donated items on the street, next to the charity bins if bins were full and asked people to hold on to items until the bins could be emptied.

“One of the difficulties for a lot of people, they do the clean out and pack up all the toys and then they get here ... they don’t want to have to bring it all back again,” he said. 

Volunteers do their best to clean-out the bins daily but they had a few days off over the Christmas period.

It was a common problem for this time of year as people fill their homes with Christmas presents and items from the post Christmas sales, they take the opportunity to clean out the home while they have time off. 

Mr Lulham said he appreciated the good intention but asked people to consider what might happen to items not placed in the clothing bins correctly.

“Perhaps we should look at providing a standard sized bag because those big stripy ones are good because you can secure them with a zip but they’re too big to fit in the bins,” he said.

Mr Lulham and the St Vincent de Paul volunteers will be back in the shop today doing their own clean-up and a “complete re-stock” of the shop in time for its re-opening on January 7. 

nicole.kuter@fairfaxmedia.com.au