Salvation Army robbed again!
Tonight we regret to report that yet again, the Salvation Army of Belize is the victim of a crime. And as News Five’s Kendra Griffith reports, the latest incident was so senseless officials are now wondering if the organization is being deliberately targeted.
Kendra Griffith, Reporting
The walls of the Raymond Parks Night Shelter were bare and the side door boarded up this morning, after a thief or thieves ransacked the institution in the early morning hours of Sunday.
Patrick Jones, Youth Pastor, Salvation Army
“They pried open the screen door to gain entrance to the building. Once inside, the person or persons made their way to the kitchen where they went with all the plates, which we use to feed the residents of the shelter; they went with a microwave oven; they went with a clock that was on the wall; and also they took down what we had there, a mirror that was on the wall. Now the mirror, it might not be worth a lot to a lot of people, but for us it’s a sentimental thing in that it’s been there since this facility opened.“
Sunday’s incident was the first time that the shelter had been broken into but more disturbingly, it is just one of a long list of violations that the Salvation Army has had to deal with in the last couple months.
Patrick Jones
“It’s beginning to wear thin on our patience now that we don’t know if somebody is deliberately targeting us or what have you, but we cannot continue like this anymore. We have reason to believe that it’s people right from this area that are involved in this in some way or the other and we want it to stop. It is a situation now where these are material things that they are going with and it affects our work.”
“The Salvation Army is not a rich organisation. We are here to socially help those who are unable to help themselves in certain instances, and when you steal from these people I have to be concerned for you spiritually and morally as well.”
Tonight, Salvation Army Youth Pastor Patrick Jones is appealing to the public not to purchase the stolen goods.
Patrick Jones
“And the people who buy these things are encouraging the person or persons who are doing this, because if there is not a buyer out there, these people will not come into our facility and make off with what’s ours.”
The night shelter currently boards eighteen elderly men, providing them with breakfast, supper and a bed to sleep in at night. Kendra Griffith reporting for News Five.
According to Jones, the Salvation Army primary school also suffered another attack last week when someone cut the institution’s internet cables. It is surmised that the perpetrator thought he or she was disabling the school’s recently installed alarm system.
