I think I'm not being unreasonable, but I'm a bit angry, so I'm not sure. MacMillan coffee morning

[Fiendishlie]

A neighbour knocked on my door collecting items for a tombola at the MacMillan coffee morning thing her group is having at the village hall on Friday. I tell her I'll bring something over later and, as I'm not working on Friday, I will come to the coffee morning.
She looks uncomfortable and tells me that the coffee morning is for members of the group only and I can't come.
I was completely blindsided and rendered speechless; all I managed to do was close the door on her.

This isn't on, is it?

Ooh me too, I hope OP comes back.

It might have nothing to do with the pre-school but be a bunch of pre-school mothers getting together.

Not all of the coffee mornings will be listed though will they?
We are doing it at work, but it's not for anyone else IYSWIM it's a private one where we all bake stuff and then pay a pound to eat it.

If it were me, I'd have to turn up to the place where this alleged coffee morning is on Friday to see what was going on.

There was a fraudster done for brazenly emptying charity boxes a few months ago - she even gave fake receipts.

"Mother Michelle Roberts admits stealing hundreds of pounds as bogus charity collector"

And you know, who would be buying the tombola tickets at this closed "coffee morning"? Just the private group. A raffle/tombola only works when you have a lot of people, each of whom pays a little but it adds up.

Police non-emergency number (101).

Sorry for not updating earlier :)
It is definitely the pre-school, neighbours DD is 3 and not yet at the primary school which is in a different village. The neighbour is a bit of a curtain-twitcher who comes out of her house coincidentally when people get home from work so I have been 'talked at' by her at length on a number of occasions (needs adult conversation, I think) so I know that she's on the committee of the pre-school. It's like a play group, there are three employees and the parents mums get to go in and 'help' on a rota. They only have sessions four mornings a week, from 9:30-12, it's not like a nursery or anything.
I called the police non-emergency number, they took some info over the phone and gave me a URN number.
They didn't sound the remotest bit interested though.

Further to the Michelle Roberts link above, she was given a suspended sentence and community service and then she did this

I would tell your friend at the preschool and get her to say 'I hear you're organising a coffee morning! I've heard you've got lots of great gifts for the tombola. When are we having it?'

It is possible that because its a pre-school it is not open to the general public because people would need to be police/CRB checked to have contact with the children (maybe the mums who help have been - but you and any others attending would not have been checked).

We had a similar problem with a mother and baby group which took place at the children's centre at the same time the room was used as a creche. The group had to move to a different time as the parents were not police checked.

However, it does sound very fishy and rude for her to ask for prizes for something you are not being invited to.

Yeah ask Olive

Lol

at Michelle Roberts. No shortage of brass neck, then...

Nip round and donate a large object (doesn't matter what) for the tombola then park outside at 12 on Friday and see if mum's appear with ugly vases, large carrier bags, your object etc

If no sign of prizes report her.

oops mums not mum's

I'm confused. The OP says that this woman's group is having the coffee morning "at the village hall". Isn't it possible the woman who runs the preschool (who presumably will be working on Friday) doesn't know about it? It's probably the mothers from the preschool doing it, at the village hall. Why not call the hall and see if there's anything booked before calling the police?

Apologies if I've completely misunderstood.

I assumed that in a small village the pre-school would use the village hall as their venue.

Lurking...

Ooooo, this is getting like the rather exciting XBOX raffle price/theiving PTA lady of last year's thread.

That was a good one....!!

Wow re. that thieving charity collector link. What on earth were the probation services thinking, letting someone convicted of dishonesty handle vulnerable elderly people?

Anyway, do hope you've found out whether this was merely a muddled neighbour or something more serious by now, Fiend. If the police didn't care, do call Macmillan and check it out with them.

It's Friday night now - I was hoping to find out if there was just some confusion over the venue, or if they are holding the coffee morning on the Saturday instead (as our Church did for several years), or if this woman really was stealing the goods people donated to MacMillan ?

Any update.

I'd keep an eye on eBay to see if any of the stuff turns up on there, or local car boot sales.