Businesses donate new phones to Peterborough Volunteer Fire Brigade after station phone stolen

Businesses have come together to donate two new mobile phones to Peterborough Volunteer Fire Brigade after the charity’s phone was stolen from the station last month.

The stolen phone and charger had been donated to the brigade by Cambridgeshire Fire and Rescue Service just four weeks before it was taken from the station, in Bourges Boulevard, on July 19.

Two Peterborough businesses – Handtec and Pronto Accident Repair Centre Peterborough – have now donated two mobile phones to replace the stolen phone, which was never recovered.

Tony De Matteis, chief fire officer at Peterborough Volunteer Fire Brigade, said: “The Peterborough Volunteer Fire Brigade would like to thank both parties for their kind generosity for donating the phones.

"We will forever be grateful for their support.”

The volunteer fire brigade have attended 206 incidents so-far this year while heading out to 299 last year.

"We’ve accepted that we will never get the phone back but it was the principle that someone could walk into the fire station and steal the phone from us,” Anthony Gould, second officer at Peterborough Volunteer Fire Brigade, added.

"We’ve accepted that we will never get the phone back, but it was the principle that someone could walk into a fire station and steal from a charity.

"We would normally have the doors open because people are welcome to come and have a look round the station. We’ve had to shut the doors now. We’re here to help members of the public.

"While we were waiting to get a replacement, control couldn’t get hold of us, so they had to contact us via our personal phones – which was an inconvenience."

Anthony said that the fire brigade wants to spread the two phones across the station to ensure the firefighters can hear them when they ring.

Jack Exton, manager at Pronto Accident Repair Centre, said: "It obviously wasn’t nice what happened so we wanted to do something to help.

"Things get stolen every day, but you don’t expect it from somewhere like a fire station. People like that have no morals to steal from a charity.”