St Patrick's Day revelry leaves sour taste with Whangārei Salvation Army

The Salvation Army's Family Stores area manager Nick Garforth at the Army's Vine St, Whangārei store that had its window smashed during St Patrick's Day celebrations in the city. Photo / Mike Dinsdale

The Salvation Army in Whangārei wasn't celebrating St Patrick's Day yesterday, with the annual event leaving a sour taste.

Instead it was cleaning up, and looking at a bill to pay, after St Patrick Day revellers smashed a window at the Salvation Army's Family Store in Vine St.

The Salvation Army's Family Stores area manager Nick Garforth said the call received from City Safe staff at 1.36am yesterday telling them the bad news that the store window had been broken.

''They said a man and woman who had been involved in the St Patrick Day celebrations got into a fight. And as a result of that a plate glass window on the store got smashed,'' Garforth said.

''The force of it must have been great as pieces of glass were thrown 15 feet into the store. It's a plate glass window so it will be expensive to replace.''

The window was boarded up yesterday awaiting its repair.

Garforth said the replacement will be covered by insurance but the Salvation Army would still have to pay for the excess.

''And that's money we don't want to be spending on something like that. It's money that we'd rather use to be helping our community,'' he said.

He hoped the incident had been caught on CCTV cameras in the area and the people responsible held accountable.