Officials at The Salvation Army Family Thrift Store in Owensboro are asking people to hold on to their donations.
Captain Aaron Abram reported that people have been dumping donations at the property even though the store is closed because of COVID-19.
“All of our staff is also not there at this time, so people are leaving their donations and we don’t have a way to process them,” Abram said. “Every day we come and there’s more stuff there.”
The Salvation Army must find a way to get these things all dumped or risk a fine from the City for having trash on the property.
Abram said both of these options will cost money.
“My wife and I came down over the weekend to clean up all the trash that was left,” he said. “And then this morning when I pulled in there was more.”
Abram said people drop off things out of store hours all the time, but this has become a bigger issue with no staff on site since the store closed last week.
Abram said he can’t slide a couch into the store and the boxes and bags add up.
“What happens is people leave it out front, other people come by and see it and they’ll open up the bags,” he said. People then go through the bags which exacerbates the problem.
Abram said people should hold on to the items until the store is reopened. The Salvation Army truck will come to people’s property to pick up larger goods.
