More thieves stealing Salvation Army kettles
More thieves have robbed Salvation Army Christmas kettles than usual in B.C. and Ontario this year â including one brazen criminal who set an empty pot outside a shopping mall to collect money for himself.
In the past two weeks in British Columbia alone, thieves snatched kettles in Nanaimo and Kamloops, while another robbery attempt was foiled in Burnaby on Tuesday.
Among the robberies in Ontario, two kettles containing about $400 were taken from an 86-year-old volunteer at an Ottawa mall on Dec. 9. She said it was the first time she had been robbed in 29 years of collecting donations.
"It's a very brazen thing to do," said Capt. John Murray, a spokesperson for the Salvation Army, which uses the kettle to collect cash donations for the poor during the weeks leading up to Christmas.
"It's a real concern for us, this escalation in crime this year against the Salvation Army."
In the Kamloops incident, a man stole the kettle and placed it outside a shopping mall to solicit donations.
When someone realized he wasn't a legitimate Salvation Army volunteer, the RCMP were called. They didn't charge him because he claimed to be watching a friend's kettle.
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In Nanaimo, the thief pushed the organization's volunteer to the ground, injuring her.
Murray said he wasn't sure why the number of robberies had increased.