By Casey Neill
“Lowlife” thieves have stolen a firefighting uniform, tools and gym equipment from the Keysborough Fire Brigade.
Captain Paul Townsend appealed for thieves to at least return his structure fire gear to the station, no questions asked.
“What are they going to do with it? Wear it to a fancy dress party, maybe,” he said.
His phone started ringing at 6.43am on Monday 5 June. It’s linked to the alarm system at the Chapel Road CFA station.
“It took me a couple of rings on the phone to work out what was actually going on, to be honest,” he said.
Capt Townsend lives about 300 metres away and was on-scene within minutes.
“The roller door of our garage was open,” he said.
“I saw the lock had been cut and was on the ground and straight away called the police.
“They stole hand tools, gym equipment, and my structure firefighting uniform.
“They left all the power tools.
“I think they got really spooked by the alarm going off.”
Capt Townsend said he didn’t like to use the term lowlifes but “these are people who’ve got nothing better to do than to steal from other people”.
He pointed out that the CFA was a volunteer-run organisation.
Capt Townsend said insurance would replace the stolen items but “in the interim we’re without those tools”.
“My uniform could take a month to get reissued,” he said.
“They’re made to measure.
“It leaves me with one uniform and if I get that dirty at another incident, then I’m without a uniform.
“I can turn out in my wildfire gear but I can’t enter a building and that sort of stuff.”
He appealed for anyone with information to contact police or Crime Stoppers.
“There’s a lot of tradies around the area,” he said.
“They might have seen a car in the driveway or something like that.”
Capt Townsend said his uniform was in a square, red bag with a CFA logo.
“Once they realise what’s inside it, I think they’ll toss it,” he said.
He urged anyone who came across the uniform to return it to the CFA or hand it into police.
