Community fridge stolen from Waterloo location

A community refrigerator run by volunteers to help people access food was stolen over the weekend at a location on Roger Street in Waterloo.

The non-profit group 519 Community Collective says a wooden shed the fridge was placed inside was vandalized and all of the food was left behind.

A volunteer discovered the theft at 12:00 p.m on Sunday while making a drop off of produce. The last time the fridge was seen at the location was around 3:00 p.m on Saturday when another volunteer checked the fridge temperature and dropped off some food.

Julie Sawatzky is the founder and CEO of the organization and says it's an unfortunate situation.

"The fridge had a specifically built wood shed that went around it and with signage all over it that the entire fridge enclosure," Sawatsky said.

"The fridge enclosure was all ripped apart, there was signage everywhere, our temperature log book strewn all over the property, food items, you know, laying around. And then, sadly, the fridge was completely gone."

No security camera on site

She says there was no security camera on site as the group didn't want a camera "facing family members and individuals who are coming to access food that are going through a difficult time."

Sawatzky says there is concern by the group that the theft was malicious in nature.

"We're going to do whatever we can to figure that situation out and bring another community first to fruition, hopefully on the same property," said Sawatzky.

"We're going to have an emergency board meeting to go over what we're going to do and then we'll kind of go from there."