The Rossland Auxiliary Thrift Store is asking people to be more respectful of its premises after an incident last week.
Helen McLennan, past president, explained that because of fire safety issues, they have to keep the basement door open.
On Friday, she said somebody took advantage of that and treated themselves to the back room of the store.
“Because anybody down there has to be able to get out,” she said. “So of course somebody came in and tore all sorts of stuff apart downstairs.”
McLennan said that one of the workers had been there earlier and she’d forgotten her purse.
“It was in an area that was staff only,” she said.
The person picked up the purse, took the money and threw the purse into the receivables pile for clothes.
“It wasn’t that they broke in, we were open on Friday and they came in the bottom door that we have to keep open and they made a mess downstairs and helped themselves to things, I suppose, and then they left,” she said.
The area upstairs is cordoned off and labelled.
McLennan said that the message they want to get out is one of respecting the thrift store and also to ask others that see things that are untoward, to report it.
Mclennan said that the other problem they have is there is nothing open anymore in Rossland where people can take items for resale and recycling, so the thrift store is being treated as a recycling dumping place.
“We’re getting a lot of grief because we’re getting everybody’s garbage,” she said.
“They disrespect our signs that say we don’t take furniture, we don’t take microwaves, TVs or VCRs, but they bring it anyway.”
The Rossland Auxiliary Thrift Store raises money for health related causes in the area.
It has been around since 1938 and is governed on regional, provincial and federal levels, but they have the ability to choose the projects on a local level.