CALLOUS thieves have devastated old folk and staff at a Long Sutton nursing home by stealing its safe along with all the cash saved up to pay for residents' Christmas treats.
The Christmas dinner out they'd all been looking forward to will be cancelled and the old people will have to pay their own expenses for this Friday's festive shopping trip to Springfields.
The raiders broke into Adderley Nursing Home early on S
unday, just hours after activities co-ordinator Lesley Mercer missed an appointment to bank £840 in cash raised by staff and relatives on a big sponsored walk in September.
She said: "I'm gutted and so are the residents. It's ruined our Christmas to think that anyone's capable of doing something so heartless.
"The money taken was all the sponsor cash currently in thecomfort fund for our 48 residents, ready for treats and trips for Christmas.
"I was going to book tables at Baytree's restaurant for our Christmas dinner and we won't be able to go now.
"The staff and relatives did the walk and we'd just finished collecting in all the sponsor cash.
"On Friday we were training so I had to re-arrange to this week an appointment to bank it. Instead I put every penny in the safe for the weekend. The safe is so heavy one person couldn't lift it alone."
In the early hours of Sunday, night staff spotted that the heavy metal safe had gone from its spot on the floor of the nurses' office and reported the theft to police, who came out at 5am and found the ground floor window had been forced and some papers scattered outside.
The safe was later found by a member of the public at Algarkirk with the back ripped out and an empty wallet belonging to one of the residents nearby
Lincolnshire police spokesman James Newall said: "This is a serious offence with a significant amount of cash stolen. The old and vulnerable people living on the premises and the staff must have found this very disturbing.
"We'd appeal for anyone who saw suspicious activity or vehicles around the home before 5am on Sunday to contact police."
