Brazen burglars raided skip bins at Waipuna Hospice’s Tauranga depot over the weekend after cutting a hole in a barbed-wire fence and jumping over locked gates.

Hospice general manager of retail Jace Dowman said the burglars left a huge mess of unsaleable clothing donations for the charity’s staff to clean up when they arrived at work on Monday this week.

Dowman said disposing of unsaleable items donated to the charity had become a massive, costly problem.

Skip bin thieves cut a hole in the barbed-wire fence at Waipuna Hospice's Parkvale depot and jumped the locked gates overnight on July 12-13. Photo / Waipuna Hospice

Dowman said overnight last weekend a few individuals gained access to the organisation’s locked depot in Brook St, Parkvale, after cutting an opening in a barbed-wire fence then jumping over the locked gates.

“The dumpster divers pulled items from the three skips bins containing unusable and unsaleable donated items.”

He said this included the two larger bins containing soiled items, broken glass, bits of plastic and wire. Pieces of metal for recycling were also stolen.

Waipuna Hospice's Brook St charity shop's skip bins were raided by burglars on July 12-13. Photo / Waipuna Hospice

Dowman said it was “disheartening” anyone would do this to a charity that was helping support people facing life’s “toughest times”.

“Our staff came in to work on Monday morning ready to help serve their community, only to have to spend their morning cleaning up other people’s mess.”

Dowman said the damaged wire fence cost $20,000 to install two or three years ago and he estimated it could cost up to $500 to repair.

He said the hospice’s skip bins were regularly targeted by people trying to find items to use or sell.

On top of that, on most days unsaleable items and trash were dumped at the doors of the charity shops.

“Daily, our staff brace themselves for what they may find when they turn up to work.”

Dowman said the annual bill for the hire and collection of the charity’s skip bins had risen to $190,000.

He said with some people using charity shops as “a dumping ground for their rubbish” it took money away from the core reason the hospice existed.

Dowman urged people to think hard about what the charity did and the patients it provided palliative care services to.

“We try to dispose of as little as possible, and what we do dispose of is broken, stained or unusable and cannot be sold in our shops.

“We are asking everyone to please be considerate and help us to help others.”

Dowman emphasised the need for donated goods to be of good quality and sellable condition.

Waipuna Hospice chief executive David Bryant. Photo / Waipuna Hospice

Hospice chief executive David Bryant said people dumping their rubbish at the doors of their charity shops was almost a daily event.

“We know the cost of living is hitting hard in our community because we ourselves are under financial pressure. Actions like this place added strain on our organisation.”

Bryant said the organisation relied on selling good-quality donations to provide compassionate end-of-life care to those who need it the most.

“There is nothing of value in our skip bins and nothing worth people risking their safety or wellbeing to retrieve.”

Bryant said the break-in came at a time when the charity was facing a funding crisis, with a shortfall of $8.1 million this financial year.

Its operational costs were $14.5m a year, and the Government only funded 44%, or $6.4m, he said.

Currently it was caring for 243 people in their homes and expected to care for about 900 patients and their loved ones this year.

People can drop their quality donations at any Waipuna Hospice Charity Shop, or book a free donation collection by calling 07 281 1755.

Bryant said they chose not to report the weekend break-in to police.

A police spokesman told the Bay of Plenty Times there had been no other reported burglaries involving charitable or second-hand shops in the Western Bay district over the past few months.

“There were a couple of shoplifting incidents, which were dealt with appropriately, including the issuing of trespass notices.”

The spokesman said police took reports of all crimes seriously.

“Crime needs to be reported in order to prevent it from reoccurring, and doing nothing solves nothing.

“Police rely heavily on information provided from victims of crime so that we can target specific locations and offenders, and therefore reduce crime and the impact and trauma it causes.”

He said there were a numbers of ways people could report crimes, either in person by visiting a police station, online or by calling 105.

Sandra Conchie is a senior journalist at the Bay of Plenty Times and Rotorua Daily Post who has been a journalist for 24 years. She mainly covers police, court and other justice stories, as well as general news. She has been a Canon Media Awards regional/community reporter of the year.