A one-legged ex-serviceman has managed to hold off thieves in Blenheim who tried to grab the poppy donation bucket he was carrying.
Police are searching for two girls and a boy, aged between 12 and 13, who tried to grab the bucket outside the BNZ Bank on Market St around 1pm on Friday.
One of the girls attempted to grab the donation bucket, but the volunteer was able to wrestle it back off her, and the trio fled the scene, police said.
Marlborough Returned and Services' Association president John Forrest says the attempted theft is appalling.
The collector with the poppy bucket was a veteran with one leg, he said, but the man had managed to wrestle the bucket off the would-be thieves and hold onto it.
