Over the past five days, staff at Weldmar Hospicecare have been celebrating 25 years of providing Hospicecare throughout Dorset. But today those celebrations were dampened by the news that thieves had targeted the charity.
Just after 8.30am on Wednesday 23rd January, staff at Weldmars Poole Furniture Outlet on the Nuffield Industrial Estate, discovered that their delivery van had been targeted by thieves. The two rear tyres were missing along with their wheel nuts, two complete rear light units and the offside drivers mirror glass.
The incident was reported to Dorset Police by 8.40am.
Weldmars Chief Executive, Caroline Hamblett, expressed her disappointment on hearing the news. Everyone at Weldmar Hospicecare is extremely disappointed and saddened to hear that someone has targeted our charity by stealing from us. We rely heavily on the generosity and goodwill of the people of Dorset to help fund our services. We are now going to have to spend our limited funds on replacing the stolen parts on the van so it can be used again. It is worrying that someone has felt the need to target an independent local charity and we thank the Dorset Police for their support.
We have a chain of 26 charity shops and furniture outlets across the county which, along with the various fundraising events and activities, help fund the charitys services which are provided free of charge.
It is believed that it is going to cost the charity over £1,000 to replace the parts, which is the equivalent of one patient recieving 24 hour care for three days on our inpatient unit.
We ask our customers of the outlet to bare with us whilst we replace the parts on the van so it is safe to use again. Until then, any scheduled deliveries and collections will be suspended.
If anyone has any information on the incident or believes to have seen anything suspicious between the hours of 5pm on Tuesday 22nd January and 8.30am on Wednesday 23rd January, are asked to get in touch with Dorset Police on 101 quoting the incident number 23-072
