Family shut 10-year-old's honesty box after egg theft

A 10-year-old boy has been forced to close his family's honesty box after thieves stole the eggs and did not leave any money.

The family egg stand had been run over the years by Celt and his siblings, Brenig and Briallen, outside their home near Llanrwst, Conwy county.

It was a way for them to save pocket money but their mum, Dwynwen Williams, said the family recently decided to shut the stand after a dozen eggs were taken with no money left.

"It is disappointing that someone can do that," she said.

Ms Williams said she and her husband Paul started selling the eggs from a stand near their farmyard around the time their eldest son was born as it was "something nice to do with the children".

She added: "Brenig is 15 now so he hasn't done them for a while but for Celt who is 10 there was the excitement of going to see how many egg boxes had gone and counting the money still there.

"There was great disappointment when the jar was empty and the eggs had disappeared."

Ms Williams said she did not know if someone had paid for the eggs and that money was taken by someone else or if thieves had just stolen the eggs themselves.

She added that closing the box had saddened her children as the money they made was "theirs to spend as they want when we're out or to get an ice cream".

Colin Jones keeps 10,000 hens on a farm near Llandderfel, supplying shops and businesses - he also started selling eggs with an honesty box during Covid.

He said children in the area "love" dropping the money off and picking up the eggs.

But, when he noticed less money in his honesty box, Mr Jones did an audit and found about 24 eggs a week were not being paid for and said he would have to close the honesty box if it continued.

He added: "I don't want to have to spoil something for the children who enjoy coming here to collect eggs.

"You try your best so it's quite sad that this is happening... over the years it's getting quite big."

Huw Mackinnon scrapped the honesty box on his farm in Llanrug, Gwynedd, because of thieves and replaced it with an egg vending machine.

He opened his honesty box during Covid but said, as it became more popular, "people started stealing all the money and all the eggs".

He said it was "disgraceful" that honesty boxes were disappearing and it was "a shame that some people are spoiling it".