October 12, 2018 12.48 pm This story is over 65 months old

Spate of break-ins at Scunthorpe charity shop

Heartless thefts have left the charity shop desperate for support
Damage to door at Sue Ryder Scunthorpe shop.

Over £1,500 has been lost after a spate of alleged break-ins at the Scunthorpe branch of a national healthcare charity.

Sue Ryder is appealing for support after its shop at Skippingdale Retail Park in Scunthorpe, which sells a wide selection of high quality second hand furniture, clothing and homewares, has been targeted five times this year.

The latest incident happened between 6pm on Wednesday, October 10 and 9am on Thursday, October 11 when the doors on the premises were damaged and stock worth around £200 was stolen.

This follows three burglaries and one attempted burglary at the same shop in the space of two months, which caused an overall loss of approximately £1,600 and significant disruption to trading.

Sue Ryder Scunththorpe shop exterior.

The shop opened as normal on Thursday, October 11 and manager Claire Payne is appealing for donations to help replenish funds lost from the spate of thefts, which would have supported Sue Ryder’s palliative, neurological and bereavement care.

She said: “It’s a huge shame that since August this year our shop in the Skippingdale Retail Park has been targeted five times by thieves.

“The shop has been supporting Sue Ryder’s care for nearly five years now; breaking into a shop is one thing, but it’s another when the shop supports people facing terminal illness, a complex neurological condition or the loss of a loved one.

“The £1,600 lost overall, taking into account the stolen stock and trading hours lost, could have covered the cost of one of our family support teams for four days.

“These teams, based at the likes of Sue Ryder Wheatfields Hospice in Leeds, offer practical and emotional support to people at some of the hardest times in their lives.

“When we are targeted by thieves it’s not just Sue Ryder’s care that is impacted, either – incidents like these are demoralising to all our volunteers who give up their time to help us, and not to mention all our generous donors and customers.

“To help make up this shortfall we’d be very grateful for some extra donations. You can arrange to have furniture collected from your home, for free, when you fill out the form at www.sueryder.org/furniture. Alternatively you can pop into the store any day of the week with donations of clothing, books and homewares.”

A spokesperson for Humberside Police said: “We are investigating a burglary which occurred at a charity shop on Holyrood Drive in Scunthorpe sometime overnight between Wednesday, October 10 and Thursday, October 11.

“A number of items including bedding, sweets and toiletries were stolen. If you have any information about this incident please quote log 189 of 11/10/18.”