Charity shop broken into twice in a week
The St Barnabas charity shop in Spalding has been targeted by intruders twice in four days.
Staff were devastated to discover the shop and cafe had been broken into sometime over Monday, Aug 6, and Tuesday morning (Aug 7), with thieves stealing around £800 from safes, plus money from a collection box.
Access was gained by damaging a door with two safes removed from the wall and stolen. These safes contained the day's takings, plus a full collection box.
Also, 100 ‘Lucky Ewe’ scratch cards (worth £100) were taken.
Then, on Thursday, they were broken into again.
This time intruders broke the glass at the side of the shop and doors inside - according to retail manager Caroline Peach.
She added: "Fortunately, this time they left empty handed as we have taken extra precautions to make sure no money is left on the premises overnight - as well as ensuring extra security measures are put in place.
"However, the extra damage is now another cost that, as a hospice, we have to pay. "
It comes just before the shop celebrates its first birthday in the new premises in Market Place.
A total of £645 has been raised by kind local people to help replace the cash that was stolen from the shop on Monday night/Tuesday morning.
Caroline said: "We would like to thank everyone who has donated to the JustGiving page set up by one of our supporters to compensate the money that was taken from the break-in on Monday night/Tuesday morning.
"We are back up and running and are looking forward to our birthday celebrations next week and your support has been invaluable."
A spokesperson from Lincolnshire Police said on Friday: "We received a report today (Friday, August 10) that the St Barnabas Hospice shop in Market Place, Spalding, was broken into overnight.
"This follows on from a report earlier in the week of a break-in at the same premises.
"A number of lines of enquiry are being followed up in relation to this investigation and we’d like to hear from anyone who might have any information that could help the enquiry.
"Please call us on 101 quoting incident 66 of 10/08/2018."