Theft spurs flood of donations

St Michael's Catholic School pupils Caitlyn Hart, 11, Ruby Campbell, 7, and Alyssa Sutton, 9, with their donations for the <i>Rotorua Daily Post</i> Christmas Appeal. Photo / Ben Fraser

Generous donations have flooded in from Rotorua residents in response to the Salvation Army burglary and police are confident arrests will be made.

The foodbank, which is the recipient of Rotorua Daily Post's Christmas Appeal, had a dozen boxes of donations stolen from the Salvation Army church youth hall on Old Taupo Rd. Among the items taken were frozen chickens, chocolates, soft drinks and several sacks of potatoes which had been earmarked for struggling locals.

Senior Sergeant Brendon Keenan said police searched a Rotorua house yesterday where food believed to have been taken from the Salvation Army had been found. No one was home but Mr Keenan said police were confident they would make an arrest.

The incident has spurred a flood of people to give to the appeal with a constant flow of donations being delivered to the church and the Rotorua Daily Post yesterday.

Among those were Peter Breen, who dropped off a brand new coffee machine and several boxes of Weet-Bix.

"I read about the terrible news ... you can't even print what I think about those who did it, but they're low-lifes and karma will get them," he said.

Others donors included St Michael's Catholic School which put up a Facebook message encouraging its students' families to donate.

"At St Michael's we care a lot for other people," 7-year-old pupil Ruby Campbell said.

Owhata Primary School also gave boxes of canned items, individually-wrapped biscuits and $135 cash.

"We heard of the burglary and we all thought, they can use the food more than we can," staff member Sheryll Strickett said.

Abracadabra Cafe & Bar and The Souq owner Brendon Arkwright, who donated about 30 cans of food, said he felt compelled to top up the foodbank after "those despicable people" broke into the church.

"The idea was to help top up the foodbank so our needy don't go without. I could not believe people could stoop so low," Mr Arkwright said.

Charlie Windell, owner of Ma Higgins cafe, repeatedly dropped into the Rotorua Daily Post's office yesterday delivering canned goods, cereals, pasta and cooking items.

"If more people would help others out, the world would be a better place," he said.

Salvation Army Captain Amanda Martin was "amazed" by the generosity with the abundance of donations forcing people to walk single file through the hall.

They were given $800 in donations anonymously, as well as 260 cans of food, $300 worth of groceries from Karl Thomsen, meat from the Cox family and a pledge to donate several cans from Countdown. Independent Security Consultants Ltd had offered to install a security system as well as donate food.

"People dig into their pockets and just when you think they've hit the bottom, they come in and give more," said Mrs Martin.

"We've gone from the feeling, 'Oh my goodness, how could they?' to 'Oh my goodness, that's amazing'."