A Melbourne owner operator has told of the gut-wrenching moment he realised his 2007 Freightliner Argosy, a trailer and the five machines it was loaded with, were gone.
Though the prime mover, trailer and three of the five machines were found shortly after, damage caused by the thieves means the truck will likely be off the road for at least a week.
“That’s the only truck I have,” said Rick Williams. “I’d just taken a road train load over to Perth, unloaded new machines, and brought those second-hand machines back.
“It was gut wrenching when I realised it was gone. Me and the misses went grocery shopping, came back past and I saw there was only one trailer there. She thought I was joking, but I went and had a look and it was gone.
“They’ve also taken anything they could out of the truck, including about $3000 worth of tools.
“I’m absolutely gutted, it’s a horrible feeling. And it’s the invasion of privacy too. I’ve been a truckie 27 years, and it’s the first time anything like this has happened.”
The truck was stolen on Sunday afternoon while parked in Wallan, just north of Melbourne.
“It was parked the industrial area of Wallan and happened some time between midday and 4pm on Sunday, so it was during broad daylight. There are cameras everywhere there and there’s a local council rubbish tip at end of the road, so there’s always traffic going through.”
Rick says they were found at about 5.30pm, between Beveridge and Kalkallo.
When Big Rigs spoke with him late yesterday, he said the truck was being checked for fingerprints and he is now due to pick it up this morning.
Asked about the damage, he explained, “They’ve gone to the passenger side, busted the door lock to get in and they’ve broken the dash to get to the ignition. I’m guessing they might have had an ignition barrel for this sort of a truck.
“They drove through a fence which was all wrapped around the axles and had to be removed before the truck could be towed.
“The thieves left a crowbar on one of the machines too, so the police are checking that for DNA.”
The five machines on the trailer were fitted with tracking devices. “Police believe the culprits have a scanning device to locate the trackers because the people who own those machines could see where they were,” added Rick.
“They’ve stopped near a dam, and then they’ve gone, so we believe they may have thrown the tracking devices into the dam.”
Rick remains hopeful that the remaining two machines may be recovered. “What we’re really looking for now is those machines. When they took the two machines off the trailer, they would have had to put them on a smaller truck or two smaller vehicles, because they’re only small machines. But they could be anywhere really.”
Anyone with information or CCTV footage is urged to contact Crime Stoppers on 1800 333 000 or make a report online at crimestoppersvic.com.au.