Thieves take poppy boxes

Thieves escaped with hundreds of pounds after stealing Poppy Appeal charity boxes in Oswestry. Appeal organisers said the new-style collecting boxes were securely tied down and would have to have been cut away.

Hundreds of pounds worth of donations to the appeal, which is held in the run up to the Remembrance Day services, are believed to have been in the collecting tins.

Geoff Rastall, Oswestry Poppy Appeal organiser, said that the boxes had become one of the main ways of raising funds for the Royal British Legion. Two years ago the branch decided to stop traditional door-to-door poppy selling, amid fears for the safety of the collectors.

These days collectors stand outside supermarkets with collecting tins, and boxes are put out on counters in shops, pubs, offices and even schools, although door-to-door collections still continue in a number of villages around the Oswestry area.

Mr Rastall said one box was taken from the counter of WH Smith in Cross Street on Saturday, with another disappearing from Paperways in Church Street yesterday.

"Because of the problem of charity boxes being snatched, our new boxes have ties to allow them to be secured to a counter," he said.

"The box in Paperways was actually tied to the till," he said. "The thieves must have cut the boxes from where they were, so they must have gone prepared to steal them.

"This really is a new low. Money donated to the Poppy Appeal goes to help the work of the Royal British Legion, helping former servicemen and women and their families."

"These days it is not so much the soldiers from the First and Second World Wars the Royal British Legion is helping.

"It is the younger people, families of service personnel killed or injured in places such as the Falklands, Bosnia, the Gulf war and Iraq and Afghanistan."

Anyone with information about the thefts is asked to call Oswestry police on 08457 444888. The anonymous Crimestoppers number is 0800 555 111.

By Sue Austin