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A single mum, a hardworking businessman, a young tradie, children, toddlers, grandparents and retirees. These are the people whose everyday lives are torn apart by senseless petty crime.
Everytime a car is stolen, dumped and burnt out it impacts someone. These residents have told The Courier how heartless offenders have severely impacted their lives.
Single-mum Rowyn Day supports her son Harlow by slogging six days a week at two different jobs.
On an average day she gets up, gets her son ready, drops Harlow to school, drives to work, drives to pick Harlow up, drives Harlow to karate, drives to the shops and drives home. Her car is her “pride and joy”.
Ms Day and Harlow’s ability to get around was halted by ruthless offenders who stole their locked Subaru Forester from their Ballarat East driveway two weeks ago.
“My son got up at 7am in the morning to get his school bag from the car and said ‘Mum, the car’s gone’,” Ms Day said.
The young mum couldn’t believe it.
“My first thought was ‘shit’.That’s my only car. I’m a single mum, I work two jobs that is my lifeline,” Ms Day said.
Police are investigating the theft, but the car has not been recovered.
After borrowing other friends cars and sharing rides with friends, Ms Day has finally bought “a bomb” for $900. Being that much out of pocket will make Christmas “more difficult”, Ms Day said.
“My message is – it might be just a car in their (the offender’s) eyes but for others it’s a daily life, (losing it has a) massive impact.
“Everything, from going shopping to school to work let alone going to indulge in life’s pleasures it’s not doable.
“Let alone everything that was in the car, his shoes his school bag, everything had to be replaced and it’s hard definitely.
“For a one night joy ride – they’ve ruined the past few weeks of my life.”
Owner of the Begonia Motor City Inn Jim Barritt has pleaded for offenders to be respectful of hard workers and think about the impact their actions are having.
During his five years as motel operation Mr Barritt has been impacted by thieves, “dodgy” guests and guests who have trashed his rooms.
His experiences have made him much more cautious about who he accepts in his hotel.
“We’ve had damage that’s varied from people flooding rooms, somebody that came in and stole a TV, blankets, bedding, even the rubbish bin from the bathroom,” Barritt said.
“We had somebody come into the motel and steal $12,000 of trade equipment from a customer.The repercussions of that is that the customer hasn’t stayed.”
Mr Barritt said the repercussions of theft were serious for small business owners.
“Our profitability isn’t high, anything that has a negative impacts comes directly at us and out of our pocketbase.”
Mr Barritt said he believed poverty, disease, addictions and “a whole gamut of things” drove people to offend.
“I think the ultimately the answer comes down to the people that are perpetrating this need to have respect for other people and other people's property.
“We work bloody hard … it’s disheartening, it’s frustrating, it’s stressful.”
Tara was so sick of thieves breaking into her house and damaging her property that she moved out of her Ballarat East home.
Tara, who did not want her surname published, said thieves broke into her house and then only weeks later stole her vehicle number plates.
Ange Ruyg says she has been robbed by offenders on three separate occasions this year.
On the first occasion offenders went through her open garage door taking off with a portable gazebo and precious sewing machine.
“The sewing machine was my 21st birthday gift from my mum who has since passed away, so I was devastated,” Ms Ruyg said. The machine is unlikely to fetch more than $30 on the market, she said.
Cars have also been broken into, she said.
Ms Ruyg said the thefts had left her more paranoid than she used to be.
“I think I was most upset about the sewing machine because of sentimental value,” Ms Ruyg said.
“It's at the point where I'm jumping out of bed some nights when I think I hear someone outside. You get paranoid.”
Close to 100 people contacted The Courier sharing their crime stories. They were largely victims of theft, burglary and arson.
Police have repeatedly told residents to lock their garages and do all they can to target harden against time, but now victims are sending a message to offenders – have some respect.