Community rallies after callous thieves steal furniture from Sheffield care home during 'clap for carers'

Staff at Cotleigh care home, in Hackenthorpe, arrived at work ahead of a busy day caring for its elderly residents, some of whom live with dementia, to find their breaktime area gone.

The big eight-seater rattan table and chairs were worth around £650 and provided a much needed space for workers to take a break in the fresh air.

They suspect "heartless" thieves took off with it in a van sometime around 8pm when people across the city were outside taking part in Thursday night’s ‘clap for carers’ to show appreciation for those working on the frontline - such as themselves - during the coronavirus crisis.

Nick Iwanejko, manager of Cotleigh, said: "Our staff have been working flat out to ensure the comfort and safety of our residents so it feels like a kick in the teeth for them to come into work and find that this has happened.

"The garden furniture that was stolen was only bought last year specifically for use in the staff break area.

"We were all so touched when our neighbours came out to applaud the NHS and people who are working in care homes last night and then we come in the following morning and this has happened.

"It's hard to understand how anybody could be so heartless and thoughtless at a time when we are all trying to pull together as a community."

After staff expressed their anger on Facebook, members of the community quickly got together to do what they could to help.

Around 20 people - including even some living on the other side of Sheffield - offered to donate items to replace what had been taken which locals Andrew Nicholson and Ben Meek delivered to the care home the next morning.

Victoria Wise, who donated a table, said: “It’s disgusting and saddening. It wasn’t so much the anger of it, it was how could people do that in the situation that’s going off? That made me more sad than angry.

“The community pulled together off its own back, we grabbed hold of it and did what we do best and rallied round to get all the stuff. We don’t know each other, we just pulled together over Facebook."

But when Andrew and Ben went to deliver the donations, staff said they could not take it due to the risk of the furniture passing on infection to the care home but nonetheless staff said they were "really touched" by the gesture.

Residents are now planning to set up a fundraising page online to raise money to buy a brand new set they can use.

Nick said he tried to report the incident to South Yorkshire Police via 101 but has not yet been able to get through.

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