DONATIONS toward feeding animals at a free community farm were stolen and it has left staff 'heartbroken'.
The metal lock of a charity box was broken and donated cash was stolen at River Bourne Community Farm sometime between 9.30pm Sunday, August 13, and 9am Monday, August 14.
The free-to-visit farm, at Cow Lane in Laverstock, relies on donations to buy food and help with the upkeep of the animals.
Sara-Jane Hancock, the education and marketing manager at the farm, said the theft is "devastating".
She added: "It affects all of our staff and volunteers when they work so hard to provide a nice, friendly, free-to-visit facility to locals that other people then think it's ok to steal from.
"The only way we can keep it free is to rely on donations. It's going to get to the point where we can't make it free anymore."
Donations will be collected more securely in the future.
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A spokesperson for Wiltshire Police said: “Sometime between 9.30pm last night (13/08) and 9am this morning, unknown suspects have broken into and stolen an unspecified amount of cash from the boxes outside the property.
“We are still in the very early stages of our investigation."
Witnesses or anyone with information is urged to contact 101 quoting reference number 54230085531.
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