A CHARITY shop volunteer has issued a warning to other businesses after thieves stole a collection box.


June Brook, who works at the Animal SOS Sri Lanka shop in Snakes Lane East, Woodford Green, discovered the box containing £30 had been taken from the front counter after a busy morning.


She believes three men in their early twenties who appeared to be loitering in the shop could have been responsible for cutting the string which attached the box to the counter.


The volunteer said: "It is such a shock. Looking back on it I think I was probably naive tying it up with string, but never in my wildest dreams would I have thought someone would come in and cut the string.


"We get a lot of people coming into the shop and putting their coppers in the box, we feel we have let them down because we didn't secure it better."


"I don't want to point fingers, but there was a group of about three men in their 20s who looked like they were loitering in the shop.


"I just want to warn other charity shops in the area to keep an eye out.


"This could be part of a wider crime spree."


The charity rescues abandoned and injured dogs in Sri Lanka and was founded by Kim Cooling after she visited the country on holiday.


It currently looks after 400 animals.


"£30 doesn't seem a lot to people here, but to people in Sri Lanka that money is a lot. It pays for us to employ someone for a week or it could pay for six dogs to be neutered," Mrs Brook added.


"We are trying to open a cattery in Sri Lanka as we get a lot of sick cats come to us, so that money is vital to us.


"You have to feel sorry for whoever did this, they would have to be desperate to steal from us. You can't trust anyone now."


The Guardian is awaiting a comment from Redbridge Police.

Anyone with information about the theft, which happened on Monday (July 19) is asked to call police on 101.

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