‘Malicious’ crook pours Drano inside Op Shop West Footscray during raid

A mischievous crook has poured cleaning chemicals and placed “booby traps” inside a Footscray op-shop night during an eventful late night raid.

A crook has been caught on camera breaking in to the Op Shop West Footscray. Picture: Facebook

A devious crook has littered a popular Footscray op-shop with Drano before disabling the cameras and setting “booby traps” during an after hours raid.

Staff at the Op Shop West Footscray — located on Barkly St — spent Wednesday morning tossing food from their food bank and clearing damage left by a fiend who broke in overnight.

The pest kicked down the shop’s door about 10.30pm on Tuesday before he poured chemicals inside the shop and on the toilets, as well as leaving cables in “dangerous” spots for people to trip on.

The shop’s manager Jason described the offending as “malicious”.

“He poured Drano and chemicals in a way that we’d pick stuff up and get burned by it, he put all this cleaning chemicals on the toilets which will cause severe damage if you touch it or it gets in your eyes,” he said.

“He put all these power cables in places where people can trip, it’s just malicious activity to be an asshole.

“He broke through the door and that’s not the first time we’ve had the door broken but we can’t afford to replace it so it’s not in the best condition.”

The Op Shop West Footscray has become a target for theft and violent crime in recent times. Picture: Op Shop West Footscray

Staff also had to throw away food reserved for the needy after the heartless crook raided the shop’s food bank storage area.

“Because he had poured chemicals everywhere we didn’t know what he’d touched so we had to throw away all our food,” Jason said.

He was captured on CCTV before he disabled the cameras.

Jason said the shop would push on despite being a target for regular thefts and violent crime.

“When we first came here our first weekend, people stole our first weekend’s pay and then after that it felt like we had a new crime every week. I’ve had people attack me with weapons.

“We’ve spent thousands on cameras but no matter how secure we make them we just have people rip them off the wall.

Police are investigating the incident.

Since opening, the shop has become a popular addition to the Barkly St village with its Halloween parties drawing more than 1200 people.

The shop also for a time after Covid offered free coffee for “lonely” residents.