THE owner of a pub in Falmouth has thanked the local community for chipping in after a charity bottle containing hundreds of pounds was stolen.

Victoria Watkinson, who runs the Oddfellows Arms in Falmouth with her husband Jay, has expressed her thanks to the local community after it came together to help replace hundreds of pounds which were stolen from a charity bottle.

The incident took place while Victoria and Jay were away, on the day before the were scheduled to return home.

The couple had been raising money for a Cystic Fibrosis charity due to the fact that a close friend’s daughter who suffered from the condition had recently died.

Victoria told The Packet: “At eight o’clock in the morning, someone came in and stole the charity bottle.

“It was the cystic fibrosis charity bottle, and the reason we raised for cystic fibrosis is because my friend’s daughter who had it died two weeks ago.

"We've raised money for Cystic Fibrosis since Ria was diagnosed about 18 years ago. It's just awful the Charity bottle was stolen just after she lost battle.

“It’s been horrendous, absolutely horrendous.

“Someone actually found the bottle above Well Lane carpark, all smashed up and they’d taken all the notes. There was about £800 in there.”

However, despite the awful circumstances, the pub’s regulars and a number of local people got together to try to turn a negative into a positive.

Victoria continued: “But, something lovely has happened. Within 48 hours, all the locals, and old school friends, have all put £1,500 back. And that’s been lovely.

“It doesn’t take the edge off. It’s actually the second time it’s happened.

“It happened last November as well. We woke up to our dog going nuts and the alarms going off, Jay went down and missed them by seconds. It was cash they had that time.”

Thanks to the help of local people and regulars, the couple have now raised more money than they originally had and Victoria expressed her thanks to everyone that had come together and helped re-raise the money.

“We’re absolutely blown away, just a massive thank you. It just goes to show for every low-life, there’s thousands and thousands of good people. People couldn’t do enough. We didn’t even have to ask. It’s turned a negative into a positive. It’s lovely.”