ST VINCENT de Paul's clothing shop workers are gutted after their clothing bin was torched overnight Monday, destroying the bin and its contents.
Manager Trudie Jones is furious at "the wanton destruction" and said she and her staff of volunteers fear that next time it might be the shop building that goes up in flames.
Ms Jones said it was another blow after the constant vandalism of their shop sign for the past two months and she said if being targeted like this continued, the shop might be forced to close.
The bin was filled to the brim with good used clothing for all ages and ready to be moved into the shop to go on sale.
The destruction was discovered about 9am yesterday morning when the volunteers arrived to open up. The fire was still smouldering and both the fire service and police were called to the scene.
Ms Jones said the graffiti written on the shop sign "every weekend" was now being left because every time staff had cleaned it off it was back again by Monday morning.
She said because St Vincent de Paul was a charity organisation, it couldn't afford to buy alarms and she was "extremely disappointed that people behaved this way".
"All the clothes are donated and if we have to close down it will be sorely missed in Masterton."
Vandals torch clothing bin
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