Theft of donated goods left outside charity shops

Howard Lake | 17 April 2003 | News

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The Daily Mirror today highlights the theft of donated goods left outside charity shops.

Readers had contacted the newspaper claiming that such theft was rife in their area, so the newspaper set up “stings” outside charity shops in London, Oxford, Cardiff, Ilkeley and Didsbury.

A box of donated goods was left outside a charity shop and a photographer lay in wait to record what happened. In some cases they didn’t have long to wait. Passers-by rifled through the donated goods and some took what they wanted.

While many left the box alone, in some cases opportunist thieves tried to take the whole box.

While there were some heartening stories of honesty, including that of the woman who, alarmed at the possibility of theft, took one box into her house in order to give it to the charity herself the next day, the message was that such theft was commonplace.

About Howard Lake
Howard Lake is consultant editor of UK Fundraising. He founded the site in 1994 and successfully sold it in 2022. As director of Giving X Ltd he is exploring growing giving on a massive scale. He is the founder of Fundraising Camp and co-founder of GoodJobs.