To think it's not on to steal from a Charity?

[RunRabbit]

We get those bags through our postbox from Charities asking for Clothes.

Myself and our neighbours put out a bag each.

I saw a family take the bags down the street, rummage through them, empty one of the bags into the other, then throw the empty bag on the street littering our street. Cheeky sods and off they went. Happy as Larry.

Makes me not want to put anymore out now.

Take stuff to oxfam or similar. The charities don't get all the profits from those bags, and in oxfam and probably other charity shops you can gift aid your donation.

Those bags are great bin liners but I never put stuff out in them that I would donate for that exact reason, I always take it to the charity shop or put it in the drop box thing at the supermarket. I think those bags are a con, they are never charities that I have ever heard of.

It's not on to steal from anyone, actually.

Those bags aren't great anyway. I don't think the charity actually gets a good portion of it.

Better to donate directly.

You don't have to take the the bag to the shop to gift aid your donation. At British Heart Foundation you can write your details on the bag wrapper
put it in the bag and your card will be sent to you and then every time you fill out a bag you just write your number in the box.

Have you informed the charity shop in question about the problem, when I worked for the BHF we had a list of streets where problems occurred and ensured that the streets are pick up from early so bags were not left out for a long time.

Also at BHF and I know other charity shops do the same you can ring up and arrange a collection, now bearing in mind that the drivers are normally unpaid volunteers they may only do it on certain days.

Oh and by the way it is a criminal offence to steal out of charity shop bags

www.bhf.org.uk/pdf/Charity%20bag%20fraud%20and%20theft%20policy%20statement%20May%202012.pdf

sorry that link didn't work but go on the BHF website and you will see their policy in regards to theft and fraud.

If you read the back of most of those bags you will see that it's a separate organisation who organise the bag drop off & collections. They weigh the bags in and donate a fraction to said charity.

You'd be better off taking your stuff to a charity shop, that way the charity get the opportunity to sell it.

Alternatively, take good quality coats / jumpers to the local homeless shelter. They'll gladly give someone the opportunity to wear your items.

Shiraz thats NOT TRUE about the BHF all bags are collected by the charities drivers, and taken into the BHFs shops 100% of the value of those bags go to the charity, even clothes they cant sell are recycled and they get money for them.

I didn't know the charities don't get all the profits from the bags.

I'll definitely look into dropping clothes off at the shops themselves next time.

FeckOffCup I've heard of people stealing out of the bins too. Otherwise I would have taken the bag to the one at the end of our road.

Mrsdavidcaruso No I haven't told the Charities. We get so many bags from different Charities I lose track of who's sent them. I usually just check if they have a Charity number.

That's awful if people steal from the bins, I'll definitely make the extra effort to take the stuff to the actual shop then. I could understand if it was people in dire need stealing to clothe themselves and their DCs but sadly it's more likely to be chancers wanting clothes to take to those cash for clothes places, there was a bit in the local paper about people having their washing pinched from the line since the town got a cash for clothes shop.

I never use the bags either, I've never heard of any of the charities that use them & am not entirely convinced that all of them are genuine.

I put our unwanted stuff into clothes banks because they recycle anything they can't sell from there, or drop the decent stuff directly into the charity shops.

I rarely donate things to charity shops anyway, but it is not acceptable to steal from anyone. Recently I did a collection for a charity at a supermarket and some scumbag helped themselves to £20 out of the bucket before it reached the cash office. I was ! How very dare they. They wouldn't have taken the money out of the tills, and what was probably even worse, was the attitude of staff who shrugged their shoulders and said there was nothing they could do about it. I have a sneaky feeling that their attitude would have been different it HA been money out of the till.

A few months ago, I was taking some clothes to the clothes recycling bins next to the supermarket (they were tatty otherwise I take them directly into charity shops).

Any way guy stood besides me and starts to grab bags that hadn't been put into the bins properly. I was fuming, so I walked up to him, picked up one of the bags he took and put it back in the bin. He started mouthing off in his own language so I replied 'that's disgusting, stealing from a charity. Don't act like you can't understand me.'

Then I walked off. I'm not really one to confront, but I was livid.

YANBU. But I think once you put them on the pavement for collection, they're not really yours anymore, or rather, they're in a no-mans land where cheeky twats roam.

I was a bit shocked once when my friend was going through the collected items (to be fair, she organised the collection on behalf of the charity and some of the bags were splitting) and found a naice pair of boots. She kept the boots. I was very shocked and quiet cross, but she then WEIGHED the boots and added the same weight in sheets... so it kind of balanced out as the donations were charged by the weight. It was cheeky.

When I donate I phone ahead, arrange a time and hand the items over personally. I think that's (sadly) the only way you can be sure that they get to the (probably first of many) destinations.