Stealing from Charity (Shop on Lordship Lane)

[Domitianus]

I have a feeling this subject may have been raised here before but here goes. This afternoon I was walking past St Christopher's Hospice Shop on LL. As is often the case there were a couple of bags of clothes left outside awaiting salvage by the shop staff. As I passed by a middle aged woman (slim, wearing shorts, shoulder length brown hair and bad skin and teeth, just in case she is reading this) browsed through one of the bags, picked up a pair of shorts and walked off with them. Now I am no lawyer but it seems to me that the stuff left outside the shop has been given to St Christopher's as a gift by the donor and is, therefore, St Christopher's property. Thus, removing it without permission is theft.

I politely approached this lady using the words "Excuse me, I don't mean to be rude but...." and pointed out that the piece of clothing she had taken actually belonged to the shop and did she not consider her taking it as tantamount to theft? She became very unpleasant (obviously a defensive reaction to being confronted by her own dishonesty) and accused me of being very rude and said that "St Christophers get the money off me" (what she meant by that I don't know - maybe she is a regular customer and thinks they overcharge!). I pointed out that I had not been at all rude but thought it appropriate to point out that her actions were actually removing revenues from St Christophers and that my comments had been expressed in an extremely polite manner. She continued to tell me how rude I was and that it was none of my business. I replied by asking whether I should consider it "none of my business" if I saw someone breaking into a car - should I just pass by and say nothing? She said that she was not breaking into St Christophers - thereby missing my analogy entirely. Suffice it to say we had an exchange of words and she then strode off triumphantly clutching her stolen goods.

This is the sort of behaviour one expects (and can almost condone) from the homeless and destitute but seems rather shoddy from an apparently housed and moderately affluent citizen.

Anyone have any thoughts on this matter. Does the fact that the clothes have been left outside the shop and not yet priced and sorted make this any different from walking INTO the shop and pinching something?

[Bellenden Belle]

It is indeed a very dishonest thing to do and I hope that despite her defences she felt ashamed - well done on tackling her and speaking up.

However - it drives me crazy seeing all that stuff dumped outside every week. It makes the place look an absolute tip. The fact is if you want to donate then either do it in opening hours or walk down to Mind and use ther clothing recycle box. Dumping on the street is literally that - dumping - and many charity shops actually won't take in bags left in this manner for all sorts of reasons.

[*Bob*]

Yes BB...

The person who needs the real kick up the arse here is the one who dumped the stuff outside. Of course it is irritating when you've humped a bag of stuff to a charity shop only to find it shut, but on the occasions I has happened to me I've taken it home again rather than lazily chuck it near the door anyway because I can't be bovvered coming back and I didn't check whether the shop was open. It's like flytipping for those who want to ease their conscience.

[Crokes]

Agree it is wrong to take these items and awful to see items/clothing dumped, but the clothing box outside Mind is no better for avoiding this issue - I saw exactly the same thing as Dominitianus, it was also this afternoon but outside Mind/the Mind clothing box - two women rifing through the bags/boxes AND going to the effort of dipping into the clothing box (not easy by the looks of it!). I was tempted to say something but couldn't see it leading them to doing the honest thing, just giving me aggro back.

I also think it's the dumpers that are the main culprits (if it wasn't there it wouldn't be a temptation) - MIND eases the problem as it is open at weekends, and all charity shops have notices requesting that items are not left outside of office hours, yet people seem to ignore these... as there's so much of it about perhaps the council should have a recycling bin for clothing too??? (probably totally unworkable, but it's an idea).

[Keef]

Agree about leaving bags outside.

As for the woman, that's well out of order, and I hope the shorts are 2 sizes too small, and she starts to feel fat and hate herself!

[chuff]

I've seen people rifling through bags outside that particular charity shop more times than I can remember. Most of the time they don't just steal, they throw the rest of the stuff all over the street. Nice people.

We take most of our old clothes etc to St Christophers Hospice but now phone them to make sure they are open and can take the stuff before we venture down there as it does seem to be closed quite often or full.

It wouldn't bother me so much if the person looking through the stuff was a homeless person but everyone I have seen doing it looks as well dressed as myself.

chuff

[lozzyloz]

To be honest the woman nicking the shorts probably deserved them. Doubt she's a nice comfortable middle class woman, more likely she's had a miserable life, a crap job and has a bit of D&D problem. It's awful that anyone has sunk so low to have to resort to nicking from a charitable donation but then again she deserves every little bit of help (and possibly compassion) rather than us sneering down our nose at her.

At the end of the day it wasn't in the shops possession and the cause of the problem was the mindless dumper. *Bob* is quite right "It's like flytipping for those who want to ease their conscience."

[TillieTrotter]

Look I'm sorry, couldnt help myself. Yes Keef they were two sizes too small!!>:D

[Andyng]

I agree that this is so wrong Ive seen so many times people rifling through boxes

at nightime throwing items all over the pavement and running off.Thats why I take my items

directly into the shop now.

I used to live in pimlico and once saw this guy rifle through the shirts( there was an outside display)

took his shirt size and ran off.No one did a thing.These people should just be put in prison.This is still

no different than going into a shop and nicking stuff.Sounds like shes a complete lunatic

[Nero]

If she were a complete lunatic, then perhaps we'd be nicer to leave her alone and not berate her from the comfort of our living rooms. If she were not a lunatic, then she sounds like she deserved to be confronted. Nero

[Domitianus]

She struck me as being rather nasty and with an attitude problem, rather than troubled or unstable so think she deserved a talking to. In case I was wrong I did make my approach to her quite courteously. Saw her again today walking up LL wearing a different set of quite smart looking clothes so it confirmed my suspicions that she is not exactly needy - she averted her gaze when she saw me which I can only attribute to a guilty conscioence or the hideous and disfiguring massive supurating boil on the tip of my nose. Hard to know which it was.

[dullwitch]

I used to live by the Mind shop on Goose green and I would always see bags dumped outside the shop and left there all weekend to be rifled through and thrown down the street.

Dumping your unwanted goods outside a charity shop is fly tipping.

Many times I was tempted to pick the bags up and take them home, just to stop the mess, and take the back when the shop opened.

But then I probably would have been moaned at by some self-rightous do gooder, so I never had the bottle in the end.

It's funny how no one is ever around to complain to the person dumping the stuff in the first place.

There's a simple way to stop people rifling through bags. Don't dump them outside, wait for the shop to open!

[Scylla100]

Does anybody else have the experience of putting stuff outside your house and then having someone take it? Instead of going to the dump or calling the council to come make a pick up, I've put my old MFI computer table, broken lawnmower, a chair I didn't want, and other such things outside the front door and people just come and take them. I think somebody once knocked on the door to see if I really was throwing the item out which was kind of them.

Nobody wanted my broken up backyard fence...unfortunately.

[Marmora Man]

Scylla100 Wrote:

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> Does anybody else have the experience of putting

> stuff outside your house and then having someone

> take it?

We recently had some work done in the house and needed a skip for the rubbish it generated. We experienced the usual problems of half he street using "our" skip to dispose of their rubbish - but then also watched with amusement as it turned into a kind of Swap Shop - over a period of three weeks waste went in from many soucres, someone would rifle through and extract, more waste in, more goods out. Old doors, old chairs, metal fittings - in the end we had one skip of rubbish but it had been almost emoptied and refilled several times.

[giggirl]

I get lots of charity bags but through my door for me to fill and leave outside on a given collection date. I don't fill them any more because on so many occasions the collection day came and went and the full bags were left on my doorstep. Call me old fashioned but I just don't like plastic bags on my doorstep. I didn't want to deprive the charities of the bag itself so I took to leaving the unused bag on my window ledge where it could be seen so that the charity collectors could collect the empty bags and re-use them. Except that they never ever took away the empty bags. Now I use them as bin liners. Am I going straight to hell?

[Bellenden Belle]

Actually many of the "charity collection" bags put through doors should be viewed with caution. There have been recent newspaper reports on how they are far from charitable with donations being sold for profit overseas. A double edged sword - taking goods away from bona fide charities and also adding to the strain of struggling third world economies by flooding the market with imported clothes.

[Domitianus]

giggirl Wrote:

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> I get lots of charity bags but through my door for

> me to fill and leave outside on a given collection

> date. I don't fill them any more because on so

> many occasions the collection day came and went

> and the full bags were left on my doorstep. Call

> me old fashioned but I just don't like plastic

> bags on my doorstep. I didn't want to deprive the

> charities of the bag itself so I took to leaving

> the unused bag on my window ledge where it could

> be seen so that the charity collectors could

> collect the empty bags and re-use them. Except

> that they never ever took away the empty bags.

> Now I use them as bin liners. Am I going straight

> to hell?

Only if someone lends you a handcart!