'It kind of broke my heart a little bit': Woman watched Goodwill employee toss donations into dumpster

An Oklahoma woman was caught off guard after she watched a Goodwill employee throw her recently donated items in a dumpster outside the st...

An Oklahoma woman was caught off guard after she watched a Goodwill employee throw her recently donated items in a dumpster outside the store.

Cindy Stanbrough was trying to help those in need when she decided to drive to a Goodwill store in Yukon, Okla., on Sunday to make a donation. But she didn’t anticipate she’d see where the clothing items she’d brought for infants and toddlers would get deposited.

“When I dropped it off and saw them taking the materials to the dumpster, it was really frustrating and kind of broke my heart a little bit,” Stanbrough told Oklahoma City, Okla., news station KFOR-TV. “I was just floored. After I drove away, I got kind of angry and realized that shouldn’t have happened.”

Stanbrough said she wanted to help those who needed her donations, like people recovering from the deadly tornado that touched down in El Reno, Okla., on May 25.

“I knew that they get a lot of materials and donations and that sometimes they take it to other places, but I never thought they would go into the dumpster or anything like that," she told KFOR-TV. "You do this to help people and just knowing that it’s not going to get to the people that need it."

While it’s unclear whether the employee who threw away donations is still employed by Goodwill, the organization did say that that the situation has been thoroughly investigated.

“This employee's actions are contrary to all policies and procedures of Goodwill and we can assure donors that disciplinary action has been taken,” the nonprofit said in a statement to Yahoo Lifestyle. “We at Goodwill sincerely regret that one employee's actions have disregarded our core values and our mission of helping people overcome challenges to employment.”

Other Goodwill donors also expressed concern about the situation.

”I bring things to donate, so I would hope that they would go to good use,” community member Melissa Stevens told KFOR-TV. “I know a lot of people bring things that probably do need to be thrown in the trash, but I would think they would go through it before they throw it into the trash.”

Stanbrough shared her story on Facebook to call attention to what had transpired. One person pointed out that while this particular incident was terrible, it shouldn’t necessarily reflect on Goodwill as an organization.

“Every good organization has a few bad employees. Goodwill oftentimes hires people that might otherwise be unemployable, which helps them learn about being a productive member of the workforce,” Kristy Werner Yager commented on the post. “Dealing with their incredibly poor decisions is unfortunately a part of it. Please don’t let this action of one employee reflect poorly on Goodwill as a whole.”