Because of the theft of so much from outside houses when people leave bags out -and also fake 'charities' leaving bags to fill, I only ever give directly to shops now, or to my friend who is in charge of one.
This friend is a supervisor in a cancer charity shop, and they also have problems with theft. Once when they challenged a lady who was caught stealing, she retorted that as she had had cancer, she was entitled to take things as she was now a 'charity case'!!!
Local charity shops in the area, and other branches of the shop were waned to keep an eye open for her. She had some sort of disfigurement that made her recognisable I think.