A Lake District mountain rescue team have been left saddened after donations were stolen from an outdoor charity box.
Penrith Mountain Rescue Team said it found the Mardale Head collection box, near Haweswater, which is set in a stone wall, broken into and stolen from on Sunday, after spending 12 hours on call outs the previous day
The team said they had just faced a number of tiring and emotionally charged call outs and were saddened, angry and dismayed to see the state of the collection box.
A spokesman for the team said: “The team is entirely voluntary and we rely on donations and the generosity of the public to stay operational and to be able to go out and help people in need when they call upon us.
“We have kick started our new base project and the team are working really hard to fundraise for this, so having donations stolen does impact the future for us.
“Thank you to those who have been supportive and donated since this incident already, it really means a lot and it’s good to know that support does outshine incidents like this and the team have been really appreciative of this.”
Cumbria police said it was aware of the incident, which is believed to have taken place between Tuesday July 1 and Sunday July 6.
Anyone with information on the incident is asked to contact police on 101 quoting incident log number CP-20250707-0111.
You can donate to support Penrith Mountain Rescue Team here.
