DEARBORN — Thieves are continuing to target donation boxes that are on display at local businesses. Recently, some were caught on camera, stealing the Dearborn-based Wyoming Bakery’s Sadr Foundation donation box.
A video, posted on Youtube, titled “Thieves steal from orphans, take donation box at Wyoming bakery in Dearborn,” shows an adult woman with three children walking off with the box, as the clerk steps away.
Rached Masri, a board member of the Sadr Foundation, says there have been several instances where people have posed as representatives from the charity and came into businesses, claiming they were there to pick up donation boxes, and have left with one. The boxes are routinely picked up and replaced by charities when they get full.
The local charity, Al-Mabarrat, has also experienced similar problems with donation box theft.
Masri says it’s important for businesses to ask for the identification badge of representatives who come in to pick up the boxes. He also says business owners will know whether, or not a person is posing as a representative from the charity, if they don’t replace the box with a new one when they pick it up. Masri says donation boxes should always be replaced with new ones when they are removed from the business.
He also says a real representative would replace the box and that business owners need to make sure they do. Masri says that if a box has a key, it is important for a business owner to ask for the representative’s key, in addition to an identification badge, and make sure they both match.
To protect the boxes from easily getting stolen, business owners should also make sure that the boxes are chained down.
Donation box theft isn’t a new issue. Local charities have been dealing with the problem for years and losing financial contributions that are supposed to be used to support the needy.
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