AN ELDERLY Wendouree couple are devastated after thieves stole their car and mobility scooter from their carport last Wednesday morning.
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John and Judi Palmer were asleep when thieves unlocked the back gate and stole their white 2005 Ford Falcon.
Mrs Palmer’s fold up mobility scooter, which she relies on to relieve her back pain, was inside the car at the time.
The couple in their 60s only learned of the theft when police called them at 7.30am Wednesday morning.
“They asked me whether my wife had forgotten to pay for fuel at a Warrenheip service station that morning,” Mr Palmer said.
“I said, no my wife is in bed….they asked me to check if our car was there and it wasn’t.”
Mrs Palmer said she was in disbelief when she learned the news.
“I feel completely and utterly violated, I feel devastated,” she said. “We could comprehend it if we left (the car) out on the street.”
Mrs Palmer cannot go shopping independently without the mobility scooter.
“I can’t go in the shopping centre without it,” she said.
“I don’t have the energy to walk around.”
The cancer survivor has two ruptured discs in her back and suffers from pain.
She recently overcome low-grade bladder cancer and also lives with the incurable lupus and fibromyalgia.
The car and scooter theft is another blow to the couple, who recently learned that John’s mother doesn’t have long to live.
“I kept thinking (after the theft), how are we going to see mum?” she said.
The pair have been relying on John’s old 1985 Ford Falcon to travel to Melbourne to see his mother.
Mrs Palmer said the car was uninsured because they could not afford to pay for insurance while living on the pension.
“We have not been able to afford insurance,” she said.
However, the couple do have contents insurance for their rented Wendouree home.
On Tuesday, Mr Palmer said there was a possibility of their insurance company covering the $1700 scooter.
Ballarat Police confirmed it was investigating the incident.
The Wendouree theft comes as Ballarat police ramp up efforts to solve a spate of burglaries across the city.
Inspector Bruce Thomas said on Friday that burglaries had been an issue in Ballarat, but assured residents police were working to fix the statistically high rate of burglaries in the city.
