Red Cross MidCentral humanitarian service manager Sonja De Lange next to one of their cars that had all four tyres stolen over the weekend.

A new car purchased just before Christmas by the Red Cross is now sitting on bricks after all four tyres were stolen.

The carpark at the Red Cross service centre on Main St was broken in to on Friday night.

Red Cross MidCentral humanitarian service manager Sonja De Lange said someone had cut through the gates in the carpark, removing the tyres from one vehicle and siphoning petrol from another.

It was noticed by their volunteers when they arrived on Saturday morning with one of the vehicles affected used for community training.

"It's so disappointing because we have a huge amount of volunteers that work so hard to raise that money to run our local programmes."

De Lange said it wouldn't impact their operations as they were insured and would have the cars back up and running in the next few days.

"It's just the disappointment, it's an [non governmental organisation], our vision is to support the people in our community."

De Lange said they would be looking at installing more security cameras as well as enforcing other security measures.

She also appealed to the public to come forward if anyone had any information.

"Potentially, if there's anyone in the community that's been [made] aware...if you could get more [info] to the police."



De Lange said she had been working at the site since July 2014 and this was the first time she had ever encountered something like this.

The burglary had also disheartened some of their young leaders.

"The immediate response from some of our youth leaders was 'how could they do this to the Red Cross?'."

Hart's Automotive was situated behind their building and they had come to check the cars out for them to make sure the rest had not been tampered with, she said.

"Even out of this, it's amazing how people support [us]."

De Lange said the message she wanted others to make sure they were taking precautions.

"Even if it's just warning other [organisations] out there to make sure their vehicles are safe and secure."