THERE can’t be many of us who didn’t think ‘how low can you get?’ when we read that Bolton Hospice’s Furniture Plus store had been broken into.

Thieves smashed their way into the premises in search of cash on Thursday night causing damage to property and also great distress to the volunteers who selflessly give their time to this worthy cause.

It must have been heart-breaking for those who discovered the break-in.

And sadly this is just the latest incident in which charity shops and voluntary organisations have been the target.

Clearly those who operate outside of the law in this way have no real moral compass. Here you have an organisation which does so much for such a worthy cause - and one which sadly most of us are all too familiar with - and yet someone is still prepared to try and steal from it.

To their credit, the volunteers at Furniture Plus remain undeterred and have vowed to make it business as usual as soon as possible. It’s possibly the only good thing to come out of this unsavoury incident - as it shows there are some inherently good people out there who are selfless in their efforts to improve the lot of others.

Sadly the same cannot be said of the mindless perpetrators who carried out the ‘smash and grab’ raid and caused so much damage to the premises.

They should hang their heads in shame!