THIEVES have broken in to the Salvation Army headquarters in Redhill, stealing a laptop and cash, and forcing the services to close while an investigation is carried out.
It is believed the thieves broke into the building in Lower Bridge Road through the fire door between 6.10pm last night (Wednesday) and 9.30am this morning. They broke into the office and got away with a Lenovo Thinkpad laptop and about £5 in change.
But according to Captain Trevor Green the impact on the people that use the services will have a bigger impact than the missing items.
He said: "We can have 20-40 people a day coming in here, we feed them meals. The people who are the most needy in the community are going to suffer because of someones greed. 40 people are going to miss out on meals through food parcels."
Ian Buckland, community support worker at the Salvation Army added: "People have lost somewhere safe to come, we try and build a community here. It's not so much what's gone, we open the place up to the homeless, we do food parcels, and now someone's done this to us. The sad thing is, someone's done what they've done and today we can't open for the people who need us."
According to Captain Green, he had only just deposited money in the bank yesterday afternoon.
It is believed the services, including pro bono legal advice which was due to be held today, may have to be cancelled over the weekend while a police investigation is carried out although it is hoped that the food parcel service could be resumed by tomorrow.
It is believed the thieves broke into the building in Lower Bridge Road through the fire door between 6.10pm last night (Wednesday) and 9.30am this morning. They broke into the office and got away with a Lenovo Thinkpad laptop and about £5 in change.
But according to Captain Trevor Green the impact on the people that use the services will have a bigger impact than the missing items.
He said: "We can have 20-40 people a day coming in here, we feed them meals. The people who are the most needy in the community are going to suffer because of someones greed. 40 people are going to miss out on meals through food parcels."
Ian Buckland, community support worker at the Salvation Army added: "People have lost somewhere safe to come, we try and build a community here. It's not so much what's gone, we open the place up to the homeless, we do food parcels, and now someone's done this to us. The sad thing is, someone's done what they've done and today we can't open for the people who need us."
According to Captain Green, he had only just deposited money in the bank yesterday afternoon.
It is believed the services, including pro bono legal advice which was due to be held today, may have to be cancelled over the weekend while a police investigation is carried out although it is hoped that the food parcel service could be resumed by tomorrow.