By Kyra Gillespie
Cardinia’s oldest community motorcycle club has been left devastated after thieves ransacked thousands of dollars-worth of goods from their club premises.
The Kooweerup and District Motorcycle Club’s McGregor Road site is today a mess; damaged doors hang open and debris left by the hurried burglars is strewn all over the place.
Club member Jo Spencer said the raid took place sometime between February 20 and 21 February.
“We were here at 5.30pm last night and returned at 9.30am this morning to find we had been burgled significantly,” Ms Spencer said.
“They’ve stolen trailers, generators, tools and equipment and have completely emptied our canteen of everything – the coffee machine, food, drinks, the dishwashing stuff, the milk … They even took our defibrillator … who would do something like that?”
“They’ve taken at least $20,000 worth of goods; for a small community club that’s a lot of fundraising.”
While police are yet to determine the extent of the damage, Ms Spencer believes the thieves had used bolt cutters to break the chain on the front fence and an angle grinder to gain access to a storage container on the site.
“They came prepared, and it was definitely more than one person. It would take at least two people to lift the generators and they would have needed a trailer or a truck to get that amount of stuff out.
“It’s just devastating; we held a working bee last week where over 22 families came and put in a lot of work to get the place looking nice and organised.
“We just can’t believe someone would do this.”
Car batteries were also stolen from the neighbouring Pakenham Auto Club.
Anyone with information or who may have sighted any suspicious activity along McGregor Road is urged to contact Pakenham Police on 59452500 or Crime Stoppers.
