Heartless thieves steal sat navs and PPE from Barnsley Hospice

The vehicles, which transport stock between the charity's shops, were targeted in the early hours of July 21 while they were parked at the hospice's donation centre on Fall Bank industrial estate in Dodworth.

The thieves broke windows to steal sat navs and personal protective equipment before they fled after being disturbed.

Face masks, visors, gloves and sanitisers belonging to the drivers were taken, along with two sat navs, and the damage to the windows has cost £400 to repair. The crime also prevented furniture collections for over 24 hours while repair work was carried out.

The incident comes just as the charity's work was just resuming after being put on hold during lockdown.

Barnsley Hospice's retail manager Stephen Hatfield said:

“I’m disgusted really. We have just started finding our feet again after having to close all of our retail shops for months, losing thousands of pounds a week.

“We have lots of people kindly wanting to donate furniture, and are fully booked for collections for three weeks, so having to take the vehicles off the road for a day has been a bit of a nightmare. I just don’t understand why these people would want to target a charity, especially after everything we’ve all been through.”

The thieves ran off after being challenged by security guards at the industrial estate who spotted them on CCTV.

Anyone with any information is urged to contact South Yorkshire Police on 101, quoting crime reference number 14-108625.