Cranford Hospice shop broken into four times in one week

Cranford Hospice shop manager, Kim Priest is fed-up with people breaking into the store. Photo / Warren Buckland

Cranford Hospice staff have been left feeling "unsafe" after their Hastings store has been targeted six times in the past month including four times last week.

Most of the burglaries had taken place during the evening, with the perpetrators "clipping the fence in the backyard to steal donated goods", Marketing and Fundraising Manager,
Sheena Revington said.

In addition, they had two incidents where Hastings Store Manager Kim Priest's personal belongings were taken from inside her office and another where a "man was caught walking out the back storage area before being intercepted by our assistant store manager," Revington said.

"Safety of our staff and volunteers is absolutely paramount, and it is extremely concerning to us that these break-ins are intimidating and threatening to our team."

She said they wanted to raise awareness within the community to ensure it didn't happen again.

"This damage to the property, in addition to the clean-up required afterwards, is time-consuming, costly and stressful for our staff and volunteers."

However, it wasn't the only store to be targeted, with their Waipukurau shop having a similar experience on Monday.

CEO Janice Byford Jones said it was "hard to understand" why somebody would do this.

"I think most people respect the work that we do and it is not something that we are used to happening to us," she said.

The Cranford Hospice Stores are vital for the charity's fundraising and are a hive of activity.

Each year they must raise $2.8 million from the community in order to provide free, specialist, palliative care to dying people and support for their families in Hawke's Bay.

Byford Jones said she "guessed one of the motivations is that they need some sort of help and I would like to think that there are other agencies in the community that could help people if they do need this help rather than having to resort to stealing from other members of the community".