£600 leather jacket stolen from charity shop

A LEATHER jacket worth at least £600 has been snatched from a charity shop window in a heartless daylight robbery.

The Chest Heart and Stroke shop where thieves stole the expensive leather jacket. Picture: Ian Georgeson

The donation was stolen just hours after going on display at Chest, Heart & Stroke Scotland’s boutique in Morningside Road.

The biker jacket had a knockdown pricetag of just £200 and would have raised vital funds for the charity.

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Bosses there have now had to make a heartfelt plea for generous donations to help replace the loss.

Aimee Foster-Boyd, the branch manager, said the store had suffered a series of robberies in recent times, but none which had left them counting the cost as much as the jacket.

She said: “The jacket was a John Richmond leather biker jacket with a retail value of £600, although we were looking to sell it for £200.

“We pride ourselves on having great quality stock enabling us to provide the best deals for our customers and we’re so sad that people would target a charity shop like this.”

Aimee said the jacket had only been on display in the shop’s window for around two hours on Saturday afternoon before it vanished.

“The jacket had only been donated that morning and we’d just finished researching about the designer,” Aimee said. “We think someone has gone into the window between two and three o’clock in the afternoon and taken it.

“We never saw a thing as Saturday is our busiest day, and the staff were busy dealing with other customers.”

With no description of the suspect and no CCTV cameras in the area, Aimee decided not to report the incident to police.

Aimee added: “All our staff are just really disappointed, we are a charity and the majority of the money gets kept in Edinburgh and helps local people.

“We’d like to appeal to the public to help us to recoup the money lost. We would be especially grateful for any donations of good quality clothing, accessories and bric a brac.”

John Richmond jackets can be found in some of the UK’s most prestigious department stores, including Harrods and Debenhams. They range in price from £200 to more than £1000, and are popular all over the world.

Local councillor Melanie Main said: “It is shocking that someone could consider stealing from a charity shop.

“Donations are freely given, but the value to these charities and onward to those they help is what we are robbed off.

“In this case literally hundreds of pounds have been taken from the community.

“I hope anyone who has any knowledge comes forward to help right this very serious wrongdoing.”

Police urged the shop to report the theft.

A spokesman for Police Scotland added: “We would always encourage someone who has been the victim of a crime to come forward.

“We treat all reports with the utmost seriousness and will carry out a thorough investigation.”

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