A CHARITY shop which was targeted by would-be burglars has told them: “next time, just knock on the door”.

Volunteers at Wantage’s Changing Lives charity shop, which opened just five months ago, arrived on Monday morning to discover an attempted break-in.

The would-be thieves had prized wooden panels right off the front door to try to get inside.

But, on discovering more wooden panels behind the first set, it seemed as if the burglars gave up and walked away.

Volunteers immediately called police, but no one has yet been arrested and officers are still hunting for the charity shop chancers.

Lisa Sammons, who manages the shop in Church Street, said: “I got a call from one of my colleagues on Monday morning saying panels had been removed from the door.

“Whoever these people were, we just want to tell them ‘you don’t need to break in – next time come and knock on the door’.

“If they’re really in that desperate need we would be happy to try to help them – that’s what we do.”

Mrs Sammons, who lives in West Hendred, added: “We opened in Wantage about five months ago and it’s been doing really well.

“People now realise we are here to help the local community.”

Changing Lives was founded by East Hendred fundraiser Val Prior.

She ran the Tin Hut charity shop in her village with her sister for five years, but wanted to do more to help people in her community.

So in December 2012 she opened the first Changing Lives charity shop in Broadway, Didcot.

All the profits go to local good causes and people in need.

Last year the charity gave Crowmarsh teacher Jackie Park £1,750 to buy her daughter Erin, who has Down’s Syndrome, her first bike.

It also donated £9,000 to buy a wheelchair for Wantage 12-year-old Freya Deacon, who was left partially paralysed by a car crash on holiday.

Donations like those are made possible because the charity has its fundraising shops.

Ms Prior said: “We give away sleeping bags to homeless people in Didcot, but still stuff gets pinched from the front of the shop every day.

“There’s no need to steal from us. We’re here to help.”

Anyone with information should call police on 101.