By CAM LUCADOU-WELLS
CRANBOURNE student Tony Jakupi hopes thieves who stole his recently deceased father’s tip-truck and skid loader might feel a pang of conscience.
Tony’s father John Jakupi had lived humbly and contentedly on a pension in Shawlands Caravan Park in Dandenong and was too proud to take money from well-to-do relatives.
He had bequeathed the vehicles to Tony to set him up financially.
“The truck, bobcat and caravan were all the assets he had.
“The plan was to sell (the vehicles) and help me towards a deposit on a house,” Tony said.
“He was throwing whatever bits of money he had on the truck.
“He wanted to go back to Yugoslavia to visit his 90-year-old father on the left-over money.”
John died at his caravan from a heart attack last month just before buying new tyres for the truck.
Tony, who studies architecture and lives with a partner and five children in Cranbourne, was hoping to use some of the proceeds from the sale of the vehicles – expected to be about $36,000 – to fund a tombstone for his father.
“If only (the thieves) knew the circumstances… it’s the only means I have to fund his grave.
“If they had any heart at all, perhaps they can just bail them on the road and call Crime Stoppers.”
Greater Dandenong detectives believe thieves in a dark-coloured SUV stole the unregistered truck loaded with the skid loader early on 31 July.
The vehicles had been parked on a slip lane in front of a business at 65 South Gippsland Highway, Dandenong – not far from the caravan park.
A friend of Tony’s – who lived in the caravan park – had spotted the SUV parked next to the vehicles between 3am and 3.15am.
When he returned five minutes later, the truck and skid loader were gone.
“He thought there was something a bit sus. He’s kicking himself in a way,” Tony said.
“I’m shocked that I parked them there that afternoon. The next morning they were gone.
“I hardly slept the first few nights. I’ve been driving around late at night, looking for (suspicious) four-wheel-drives.”
The truck is a white 1980s Isuzu with the numberplates 1AV1KL, the skid loader is a yellow 1999 Mustang 2050 model.
Tony said the truck could not travel more than 10 kilometres without overheating, so thought it could be being stored in a shed or yard close by.
Any information to Crime Stoppers on 1800 333 000.
