Thieves steal $1600 worth of meat from Loaves and Fishes food bank

The callous thieves who stole thousands of dollars worth of meat from a Toowoomba food bank were having a cook-up when police kicked their door in.

Thieves filled up two wheelie bins with meat stolen from the Loaves and Fishes food bank. The got away with one but dumped the other after they were disturbed by the owner, Kylie Jennings.

Every week the Loaves and Fishes food bank hands out hundreds of free or heavily discounted hampers.

But despite their generosity, two thieves took it upon themselves to bust open the business’s freezer and steal about $1600 worth of meat.

Kylie Jennings and her husband arrived at work about 7.45am on Friday to catch the thieves in the act.

She said the two men had forced the freezer door’s lock and helped themselves to steak, mince, chicken and hundreds of pre-packaged meals, loading them into wheelie bins.

“It was just greed. If they were hungry they could have asked us for food and we would have given it to them,” she said.

The thieves bumped on wheelie bin and made off with the other.

They ran along Anzac Ave but were followed by workers from a neighbouring business who alerted the authorities.

Kylie Jennings was heartbroken when she found out two men had broken into the freeze at the Loaves and Fishes food bank and stolen about $1600 worth of meat.

A few hours later, police kicked in an apartment door only a short distance from the Loaves and Fishes store to find two men, aged 27 and 28, having a cook up.

They were arrested and charged with entering premises and stealing and trespass.

While most of the meat was recovered it all had to be thrown out because it was partially thawed and had been transported in a used wheelie bin.

Mrs Jennings said the financial hit to the business was far greater than the wholesale cost of the meat.

“I don’t know how we are going to pay our rent this month,” she said.

“The meat is from our cost recovery section, we sell it at a discount but it helps pay for our hampers.”

Mrs Jennings suspects the thieves are regular customers because they hit the only part of the shop that was not covered by CCTV cameras.

“They think we are a charity, but they have no idea about the cost of running a place like this,” she said.

“Food is getting more and more expensive, but we have not put prices up. We have incurred that loss because we are trying to help people.

“I have had to turn people away this week because we can’t afford to give away free hampers.

“On Tuesday I had to tell a lady, ‘sorry, you’ll have to try somewhere else’.”

The accused men will face the Toowoomba Magistrates Court on March 1.