By Olivia Condous
A Melton church group has been the victim of two incidents of theft and vandalism, causing hundreds of dollars in damages and losses.
The Melton Baptist Church op-shop was broken into and ransacked earlier this month, and last week it happened again, with the culprits leaving broken windows and spray-paint tags at the rear of the building.
The op-shop is open at the church each Thursday, so the volunteers who discovered the vandalism and break-in are unable to confirm exactly which day it occurred.
Church member Rick Dickson said the unknown culprits were “low life scumbags”.
“They are attacking an op shop, which is a community thing, run by volunteers,” he said.
Over the last three weeks, the op-shop has been broken into twice, had two windows broken and been vandalised twice, by unknown individuals.
“They get in and they just ransack the place and I just think it’s got to be exposed,” Mr Dickson said.
Mr Dickson said he estimated a few hundred dollars of goods had been stolen and the church would now have to spend hundreds of dollars to repair damages to the property.
“This is a cost that we shouldn’t have to be worrying about,” he said.
All the profits made from sales at the op-shop go towards community outreach, events and activities through the church.
Mr Dickson said the recent incidents were hard for the elderly volunteers who worked at the shop to handle.
“It’s all volunteers, they’re getting older and older and it’s just very distressing to me to see how it affects them, they feel like we’ve got to give up,” he said.
Melton police have been notified of the incidents and are currently investigating the matter.
Residents with any information on the incidents should contact Melton Police on 9747 7999 or Crime Stoppers on 1800 333 000.
