Officials at a Winnipeg gas station are sharing video footage which shows someone taking a poppy collection box.
“It’s just wrong,” said Brad Caron, manager of a Shell station on St. Mary’s Road, where the incident was caught on video.
“It’s just terrible. People have no respect for anything,” said Caron.
In the video, a young man and a woman walk into the Shell gas station.
The male customer asks to use the phone and the clerk complies.
The male customer can then been seen moving the collection box from a tray of poppies on the counter. He covers the box with his jacket when the clerk is not looking.
The man hands the phone back and the man and woman leave.
Caron said there was only about $20 to $30 in the box, but that money was meant for veterans.
Rick Bennet from the Royal Canadian Legion said this is the first poppy donation box to go missing that he’s heard of in 2012, but other incidents have happened in previous years.
He said the donations are meant to help veterans.
“Certain eye programs for the elderly and just veterans in need of hearing aides, dentures – this is what the money is used for,” said Bennet.
Dennis Harvie, a navy veteran, hopes someone recognizes the two people on the video.
“I do hope that they catch them and punish them one way or another. I don’t care whether it’s community service, shoveling some veteran’s driveway or whatever,” said Harvie.
Brad Caron also hopes they are caught.
“Buddy, you are the lowest of the low. The next thing is knocking over people in wheelchairs,” said Caron.
He said he’s talked to a detective who advised him to file a report about the incident.
