Unfortunately, despite good people in the world who work with clothing donation centers and donate clothing, there are still bad seeds in this world. There have always been bad people, but it stings a little more when the bad that is done affects clothing donation centers.
In two separate incidents within one day of each other, used clothing donations were either stolen or destroyed.
According to CBS Detroit, in Michigan, three bins containing more than 1,500 pounds of donated clothing were destroyed by a fire.
Police are looking for a suspect after St. Vincent de Paul workers noticed the bins burnt to a crisp when they got to work.
“We are just distraught over this,” Michelle St. Pierre said. “Just the fact that somebody would do that. I guess that people just don’t realize that we really rely on those donations to help the neighbors in need.”
Another sad story involving a clothing donation center happened in Pennsylvania. WNEP reports that thousands of dollars in donated items were stolen at Hamilton Township.
According to state police, this isn’t the first time that the clothing bins have been burglarized. The Community Aid donation bins have been hit more than 12 times over the last few months — resulting in thousands of dollars in clothing being stolen.
“I think it’s a terrible thing, “Dinh Daugherty said. “I mean you know, why would someone want to do something like that? It’s a donation. It’s for people who are in need.”
A theft this past April resulted in more than $2,500 worth of donations being stolen.
“Stop it if you can, but how can you when it’s right out here in the open?” Art Faber asked. “You can’t police it all the time. You’d have to have someone watching the bins and I don’t think that will work.”
It’s unknown whether or not the bins will be moved into a safer location at this time.
“It’s a horrible thing, Daughtery added. “I mean, especially when you are trying to do something good and people are doing bad things.”
Don’t let the bad acts of a few stop you from going to donate clothes. You can still help people in need.
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