In the world of crime there are the truly heinous, rapes, murders, kidnapping, the kind which make the sensible among us cringe at what people are capable of.
There are also crimes, which while far less violent in nature, are no less ghastly, not because of the crime as much as who the victims were.
Think of the vandal who topples grave headstones, or thieves who break into churches, or steal gifts from under a Christmas tree.
The actions of such people are reprehensible.
And now we in Yorkton can add to that list the thief, or thieves who stooped to stealing the bottles Girl Guides in the city collected Sunday as a fundraiser for a planned international trip in the summer of 2014.
This was not likely a random robbery. It is doubtful the perpetrators were walking down an alley and just decided to hop a fence to find the bagged bottles.
No, this crime appears to be one where the thieves were aware of the bottle drive. They let the girls collect, sort and bag the bottles, then waited until the dark of night to make off with the girl's hard work.
When the Girl Guide leader, from whose yard the bottles were stolen used the words "pretty evil" (see story Page A1), she was really under-stating the incident.
It's not the dollar value of the theft, $600 is not large in general terms these days, but to steal the efforts of young people sends so many negative messages.
It is hard to imagine how the Girl Guides, their leaders and families feel about someone stooping so low as to steal collected bottles.
It paints a negative picture within our community for all of us.
Yes, we are all aware the crimes of larger centres occur here. We know of drug sales, and gang activity and yes even murders. Those things are sadly part of our world regardless of the size of the community.
But stealing bottles from Girl Guides should make us all shudder a little. We should feel a level of anger and of wanting to see the thieves brought to trial as an indication that there is still justice in this world for crimes that by their nature seem just that much lower than most.
It is unfortunate people will lower themselves so far as to undertake such a crime, and we can only hope that our community is there to help the Guides in their future fundraising efforts, and that the RCMP find the thieves and bring them before the courts.
