By CASEY NEILL
Break-in vandals tear the heart out of disability employer…
HEARTLESS thieves have ransacked and burgled a disability employer in Dandenong.
Gateway Industries administrator Faye Butterfield said they forced entry to the non-profit’s Progress Street site on Saturday 16 or Sunday 17 April.
“There must have been a horde of them with axes or something,” she said.
“They smashed every office door within an inch of its life so that all the locks are hanging off.
“They did massive, massive damage in here. It’s so uncalled for.”
Supervisor Jeff Pabst uncovered the destruction when he arrived to open up just before 7am on Monday 18 April.
“The windows were shattered, the gate lock had been broken into and the barbed wire was all loose,” Ms Butterfield said.
“We had to close the place down because our guys were so upset.
“We lost revenue for that day but our guys come first.
“The damage was so vicious. It’s horrible.”
Ms Butterfield said the thieves stole a new lap top and a $30,000 Toyota Hilux purchased just two weeks ago thanks to donations from Australia Post.
“It’s fully insured but so many people worked so hard to get the money for that,” she said.
“They took all of our car keys and all of the spare car keys.
“We’re really worried that they’ll come back and take the cars, so we had to go to the added expense of getting the RACV out here to replace the keys.
“And they took our server and our cameras and disconnected all of our internet and everything so they weren’t observed.
“We’ve just got a quote for nearly $5000 to replace our server and all our cables.
“We had to get that back up and running. We have no business if we have no computers.”
Ms Butterfield said internal doors were locked to keep confidential documents secure.
“They must have thought there were millions of dollars somewhere,” she said.
“One of the doors that was hit the most, it’s where we keep all of our vision vests.
“I only lock the doors so that the guys don’t go in and help themselves.
“They got cash but it wasn’t a lot – it was our footy tipping money.”
Ms Butterfield praised police for their assistance, which will include advice on securing the property against future break-ins.
“This is going to cost us a fortune,” she said.
Greater Dandenong CIU Detective Sergeant Craig West said the stolen car had not been recovered.
He said officers were canvassing neighbouring factories for CCTV footage and urged anyone with information to call Crime Stoppers on 1800 333 000.
