A man has been caught on camera allegedly cutting cable ties and stealing cans from charity recycling bins at a Tasmanian football club, undermining a new partnership designed to raise money for people doing it tough.
The Evandale Football Club launched a collaboration with City Mission this season, collecting cans from soft drinks and beers consumed at the club and donating the recycling funds to the charity.
But security cameras at the club’s home ground, Morvern Park, captured a man cutting the cable ties on clearly marked bins and taking the cans.
Club secretary Gemma Davey said the same person was filmed returning for a second go on the same day.
“We have really good security systems and yeah, we saw the car and the same individual come back again,” she told Pulse.
“So he obviously thought it was pretty easy, so he came back for another crack.”
Davey said the bins were cable tied shut, meaning the person had to deliberately cut them open to access the cans.
“We’ve never had the issue before when we just had the recycling bins,” she said.
She said the problem only seemed to start once the community fundraising element was publicised.
The club posted images from its security cameras on social media, asking anyone who could identify the man or his car to share the post and tell him he’d been caught.
Davey said it was disappointing given the club is entirely volunteer run and exists to support the local community.
“When you run community clubs, you’ve got a social license to be a good citizen and to do good for the community and the people that are around you,” she said.
“We’re never really out to try and make a heap of money and just take over the world with the footy club.”
City Mission provides care and assistance to people experiencing hardship and disadvantage in the local Launceston community.
Davey said if the person responsible was struggling, there were better options than stealing from an initiative that supports a charity.
“He could, if he is struggling and he’s the kind of person that would benefit from a organisation like City Mission, like just go through the right channels,” she said.
“Reach out to the people who are there built for a system rather than taking it upon yourself.”
