Clothes charity collectors, are some burglars? How about your area?

mikemac

Maybe I'm just a light sleeper and maybe I realy should do something about the letterbox

Once again those clothes charity collectors were around at 6am dropping off their stickers. Metal box and it slams shut, a shame it didn't catch their fingers.

Posted it before in Dublin forum but my letterbox is a small box on the wall and I have a key for it. It's not a letterbox on my door.
Yet one morning I was up at some ungodly hour and I could see them try my door handle :mad: I could see it moving slowly, luckily it was locked.
Went outside and gave the reg plate of the van to the local garda station but I'm not confronting these lads on my own

And the odd morning I'd be working shift and out walking at 6am and see the boyos go up every driveway, drop the stickers and have a good look around

I'm certain burglurys are done by these lads, looking for easy targets and using methods like leaving the stickers hanging in the letterbox. If the stickers are still undisturbed in a few days, good chance it's unoccupied.

Any of this messing going on around you?
It's probably clever on their part. If you confront a stranger in your driveway they'll just claim they are dropping off these stickers
Or am I just paranoid? Strange though how they always drop the stickers before or around 6am and never during the day

annieoburns

This is a new twist. Equivalent of 'just looking for my cat' if you find someone lurking in your garden. Apart from the genuine charities, there are the ones who are collecting old clothes to pocket the money from selling on - a lucrative business apparently. The claim that it is for some odd charity that does not pan out. Of course some people are not bothered where their old clothes go.

The genuine collectors are out early, to avoid traffic, to collect bags to stop them being nabbed by the sharks, to save bags from rain, etc. They probably deliver notices in new area on same run.

We just have to cultivate good neighbours and make sure leaflets/post do not clog up letterboxes. I have a 'no junk mail' sign.... still get stuff!

anewme

No you are not wrong, I just happened to be going to the bathroom one morning (was up early to go to gym) and I saw from the top of the landing someone trying the handle on the front door. It was locked, but they still tried it nevertheless. On a different occassion my neighbour swears they wrote a small x, on her letterbox and on the girl across the road. I looked and there was something written in marker. It was not written on mine. Both of them have side entrances where I am mid terrace.

Also, people are a bit careless where I live (it is very quiet) so people are not as security aware as they should be. Recently, we have things like kids bikes, those flicker scooters and in some cases solar lights (!) gone missing from peoples gardens.

Wolfe Tone

You made a mistake with your title OP,


Those "stickers" are not for charity. They are generally run by eastern europeans and there are only unregistered mobile numbers printed on the stickers. They take the clothes and sell them to be recycled, for their own profit. Don't give those cowboys anything.

Back when I did charity clothing collections (for an actual charity!) there were only 3/4 legit charities that did door to door collections.

SVP, Enable Ireland/Cerebal Palsy Ireland(CPI) and the Cancer one(can't remember the exact name).

But EVERY sticker was not a legit charity. I wouldn't confront them myself because they are a shower of scumbags. I caught them stealing our bags once from outside peoples houses and confronted them, huge Russian lads, lost the head and started screaming abuse and gathering around me (I was 15) so I let them and reported it to the Garda. Another group even blocked the van we were using in and tried to bully us into giving them what bags we had collected that day. Scumbags, remember this is a fcuking charity they were doing this to.

Now seen as they already misrepresent themselves as a charity and exploit peoples generous nature for personal gain I don't think they are exactly opposed to criminality.

Irish Guitarist

I don't know about them being burglars but I wouldn't give them any clothes as they're mostly scams. I'd rather bring them to the nearest charity shop.

Don't trust any sticker that has terrible grammar and spelling or that says "we don't enclose a bag for the safety of children and pets". Another sign that it's a scam is when they have a website or a phone number that doesn't work.

phasers

why do they put handles on front doors nowadays? Seems unnecessary, to get into my gaff you just use your key, easy. My sister has a handle on her door and it's a right pain, you have to turn the key and pull the handle at the same time

Capt'n Midnight

If it doesn't have a landline number/address or a CHY number then chances are likely they aren't a genuine charity

http://www.irishstatutebook.ie/2009/en/act/pub/0006/print.html

10.— (1) A person guilty of an offence under this Act shall be liable—

(a) on summary conviction, to a fine not exceeding €5,000 or to imprisonment for a term not exceeding 12 months or to both, or

(b) on conviction on indictment, to a fine not exceeding €300,000 or to imprisonment for a term not exceeding 10 years or to both.

Stuff a charity MUST do

52.— (1) The charity trustees of a charitable organisation shall, not later than 10 months or such longer period as the Authority may specify, after the end of each financial year, prepare and submit to the Authority a report (in this section referred to as the “ annual report ”) in respect of its activities in that financial year.

53.— (1) The Authority may, by direction in writing, require a charitable organisation to provide the Authority with such information as it may reasonably require to enable it to perform its functions.


54.— (1) Subject to any enactment or rule of law prohibiting the disclosure of information, the Authority shall make available for inspection by members of the public all annual reports and documents attached thereto that remain in its keeping in accordance with section 52 (6), at all reasonable times during the period for which it continues to remain in its keeping or such lesser period as it considers appropriate and at such place or places as it determines.

tyler71

Whenever those guys call around (always at 5 or 6 in the morning) our dog always goes ballistic which is interesting because she's normally not that excitable - good watch dog but never without a reason. The safety officer in the place I used to work actually was warning us about leaving your house keys near the door as some guys use a mirror and wire to see if they can hook your keys through the letterbox. As was said above, if there's a problem they can just say they're dropping off those notices, but I definitely make sure to lock the door and leave the keys well away from the front door just in case.

Kasabian

I once left out 2 heavy duty bin bags full of rubbish and a bag of old clothes with the sticker on it.

They took all 3.

LighterGuy

feelingstressed wrote: »

I'm certain burglurys are done by these lads, looking for easy targets and using methods like leaving the stickers hanging in the letterbox. If the stickers are still undisturbed in a few days, good chance it's unoccupied.

....Strange though how they always drop the stickers before or around 6am and never during the day

Well man, I know a few people who do leaflet distribution. Its all nixers. Which is fair enough. But because of that, you'll get a few dodgy people doing it too. I live In blanchardstown and often do I hear stuff being put in at 5.30-6.00 am. Its madness when you think about it. Does it really have to be that early. Makes you think.

But on the subject, you mentioned "charity donations" - be wary of them. While hey, im sure some are legit many are not. We've all heard of the mobile phone donations that then go out to get sold in Africa :rolleyes: In those cases they wont care to hire only "seemingly decent people" ... any rouge would do.

Oranage2

Top tip guys - some charity shops will give you money if you bring in black bags full of clothes in - some will pay 10-15 quid a black bag.

starbelgrade

There's shops cropping up around the country - along similar lines of the "Cash for Gold" places - that give people money for clothes. Can't remember how much the ads said, but they pay per kilo of clothes.

When I saw one, I found it really bizarre. I've no idea how many clothes makes up a kilo.. but I'd hazard a guess that my missus has about 20 tonnes of clothes & another 10 tonne worth of shoes.

LighterGuy

Oranage2 wrote: »

Top tip guys - some charity shops will give you money if you bring in black bags full of clothes in - some will pay 10-15 quid a black bag.

Speaking from experience? :pac:

LighterGuy

Oranage2 wrote: »

Top tip guys - some charity shops will give you money if you bring in black bags full of clothes in - some will pay 10-15 quid a black bag.

+

starbelgrade wrote: »

When I saw one, I found it really bizarre. I've no idea how many clothes makes up a kilo.. but I'd hazard a guess that my missus has about 20 tonnes of clothes & another 10 tonne worth of shoes.

= € ?

starbelgrade

LighterGuy wrote: »

+




= € ?

That was the first thought that came across my mind. But some things are worth more than money... like an easy life!

Dudess

Better than letting a bunch of clothes get mothballed tbh.

Daegerty

One or two ould rags on top of the bag, the rest rubbish from then on down but not too smelly that might give it away.

Bags placed outside the local clamper or clamper's informer's dwelling if the scumbags are particularly vicious.

Chocablock

They only pay 50 cent per kilo....Remember seeing that somewhere....Youd make a fortune out of a wet pair of jeans....PROFIT!!

darcycheng

In my opinion no one should be selling clothing in these shops unless they really really need the money. Ask any of the big well known charities what is happening at the minute and you will find these shops have had a hugely detrimental effect on donations. Charities like the Vincent De Paul are really struggling to survive these days as their donations are down over 50%. Its just the same guys who used to post the leaflets round the houses who have found they can get the clothes in cheaper this way as people have finally caught on to all their charity scams in all their forms. You will never get to find who really owns/runs them as the boss guys always stay out of the limelight, not sure but likely mostly Lithuanians or other Eastern Europeans as they would have the best contacts for selling the bought in clothes on for healthy profit.