DONATIONS left in a holding area for the Goodwill Op Shop are being rummaged through and trashed.
“It’s wicked that our volunteers who come to provide a service to the community through the op shops have to clean up that sort of mess,” Joyce Rieck said.
“I’ve been speaking to the convener of the op shop and she said we may have to lock the bins away so they can’t be interfered with.
“The problem is that means the volunteers have to lock them and drag them into the enclosed area.
“The next morning volunteers would need to unlock and go through the process of dragging them back out.
“It’s unfair, why should they have to do that?”
Joyce volunteers her time at the op shop, it’s operated by the Rosewood Uniting Church.
This isn’t the first time there’s been problems with looting of donations.
Earlier this year a volunteer saw someone sorting through donations, putting them into the boot of their car.
Taking items left outside charity shops is a crime, it’s a stealing offence.
That security cameras and signs are needed to monitor the situation is an indictment on modern society.
“If anyone is in need of anything, they only have to ask and we will do our best to supply,” she said.
“We’ve hired a skip [bin] because we get so many donations that are not good enough to sell.
“Hiring it is a cost, of course, but in that skip people are dumping their excess rubbish.
“There’s leftovers from parties, streamers and serviettes, unused food…all of it dumped in our skip.”
The skip and donation drop zone are at the back of the church property and not visible from the road.
“People wouldn’t know if someone drove their car into the car park to deposit a donation for Goodwill or to dump their rubbish in our skip,” she said.
“This behaviour has been going on for years and it’s becoming more frequent.
“People are going through recently donated items, presumably taking what they want and discarding the rest.
“The fact of the matter is we get more donations than we can sell, so it’s not that we’re missing stuff.
“We are just burdened with all the extra work of cleaning up and getting rid of things.”
