During the flooding and weather events in October, the Port Chalmers Fire Brigade was busy with the natural disaster response.
In the chaos, one person took the opportunity to swipe the brigade’s charity box from the local On the Spot convenience store in George St, Port Chalmers. The stolen box had $200 inside.
The culprit was ultimately caught and is now facing eight charges of theft after allegedly stealing 12 charity boxes in two weeks.
But in the meantime two children heard about the theft and decided to right a wrong.
Ella-Rose Preece and her brother Henry were told by their father Dominic Preece what had happened and the trio scoured Dunedin for a replacement box.
"It wasn’t easy to find. We couldn’t find it in stores and ended up ordering it online from an Auckland site," Mr Preece said.
Once they sourced the equipment, the children then decided to each put $100 into the donation box to replace what was stolen.
The children used their pocket money earned by doing chores for the donation.
When they handed it in to the On the Spot store, the owner, Robert Wink, matched their donation and put in another $200.
Mr Wink was impressed with the children’s effort.
"Stealing a donation box is a really low thing to do. Good on these two for taking the initiative and having the kindness to replace the money and box," he said.
Port Chalmers Fire Brigade Chief Fire Officer Stephen Hill said the donations given at the On the Spot were important and directly funneled back into the community.
"The money all goes towards the first response fund to better support the community ... 80% of our callouts are of a medical nature and those donations go towards maintaining and improving equipment.
The man who allegedly stole the box will appear in Dunedin District Court on Tuesday.
Along with the $200 he allegedly stole from the Port Chalmers On the Spot store, he was also charged over the theft of SPCA and Hato Hone St John’s donation boxes from Hampden, two boxes from the Willowbank Convenience Store, another St John box from a Mosgiel store, two more boxes from the Musselburgh Food Centre, a donation box from a Macandrew Bay store, one from the Melbourne St Dairy, and a donation box —along with two $7 chocolate bars — from a City Mini Mart in Dunedin Central.
