Donations to Share Alike’s annual Christmas Kindness appeal were taken from their town-centre hub
Scrooge thieves took hundreds of pounds and gifts during a break-in at the premises of an East Kilbride charity – as they were preparing for a major appeal effort distributing thousands of food and gift parcels for Christmas.
Volunteers at Share Alike were devastated to find that cash and valuable items had been taken from their hub and cafe at Cornwall Way in the town centre overnight on Sunday into Monday, December 1.
They immediately found that a valuable weekend cash donation which had been securely locked away for banking that morning had been taken, along with their countertop donations box, plus items including a projector used for children’s art classes and higher-value gifts donated to their annual Christmas Kindness appeal.
Founding volunteer Annmarie Campbell told the East Kilbride News: “The first word out of my mouth was, ‘why?’ All we do is help people, and if someone needed help, then if they’d come to us and asked we’d have helped them.
“All our volunteers are really upset that this has happened, that donations have been taken and that they’ve made a mess of our community cafe and larder – it was quite scary to walk in and see.
“It’s Christmas and they’ve stolen from weans and from families in need.”
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Annmarie and the good cause’s team of around 25 volunteers were alerted to the break-in by town centre management after workers noticed early on Monday that the glass of Share Alike’s front door had been smashed and the premises accessed.
Team members rushed to the scene and called police after finding the premises ransacked and immediately noticing damage to the secured lockers and cupboard and finding that the money and gifts respectively had been taken.
Now they are still working to establish exactly what has been lost, as well as restarting their work on meeting the usual demand for their Christmas appeal and even issuing a Facebook plea to their shocked community for a tradesperson to board up and secure their damaged doorway.
Annmarie said: “We never have money lying about but we had a donation on Saturday and had just missed the bank, so it was locked away in the staff lockers and they’ve cracked those open and taken it. They also took a cash tin, our donations box and even the thank-you stones alongside them on the front counter.
“The toys were locked away in a cupboard which has been ripped open to see what was there. It seems they’ve focused on anything with value and have taken what they could carry.”
She added: “We’ve been based at Cornwall Way for five years and we help 1400 people a week, with food from the community larder, clothes and household donations; we’ve run the Christmas campaign for years and we work to prevent loneliness and to give people a hand up.”
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The good cause does not receive external funding and relies on donations and community support – and now the Share Alike team are planning to restart work on their seventh annual Christmas Kindness appeal despite the theft.
Annmarie said: “We distribute more than 3000 parcels of food and toys. We don’t know yet when we can get back in to our premises and this means that we’re behind for this year, but we’ll just have to work extra hard to do whatever we can for Christmas.”
A Police Scotland spokesperson told the East Kilbride News: “Around 8.50am on Monday, December 1, we received a report of a break-in to and theft from a premises on Cornwall Way, East Kilbride. Enquiries are at an early stage and ongoing.”
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