A MEAN thief may be targeting a Totnes hotel charity effort after pilfering a collection box three times in the last few months.

On the three separate occasions — two in the last week — the bulky, four foot high box in aid of Guide Dogs for the Blind has been found in the Royal Seven Stars Hotel ladies' loo.

On the last occasion, last Friday, the hotel's CCTV captured a woman dragging the box some four yards across the public foyer area of the hotel and into the toilets.

The incident happened at 11.35am and police are appealing for help from anyone who may have seen the woman before or after the theft.

A spokesman said: "You would have thought that on a Friday morning there would have been a number of people around who would have seen this woman."

Meanwhile staff at the hotel are angry that the town's charity efforts are being attacked.

The hotel's general manager Margaret Stone explained that the box invited people to donate used mobile telephones, old costume jewellery, unwanted keys and foreign coins.

She said that it was impossible to know just what had been stolen from the box on any of the three occasions it had been moved.

She said the first time it was discovered in the loo was six months ago but the last two occasions have been in the last week or so.

"What sort of person would do this anyway?" she asked. "It's really unbelievable that anyone would steal from a charity box."

She added: "Sometimes there are a lot of items in there. People in Totnes are very generous when it comes to charities."

She said that from the CCTV footage it appeared that the woman — probably in her middle 20s — had a male accomplice who appeared to be keeping watch.

Police describe the woman they want to talk to as white, short with dark hair tied back in a pony tail and wearing a black hooded coat.