By Afraa Kori
Car theft continues to be a growing issue across Victoria, with even charities falling victim.
Last month, ADRA – the humanitarian agency of the Seventh-day Adventist Church – had their white Mitsubishi truck stolen from their site in James Street Dandenong where they support people in need with food every week.
“A couple of our volunteers were driving and just going out to get some food, when they noticed the truck in public,” director Rebecca Auriant said.
“They followed it, but the driver realised someone was following them, began driving erratically, nearly crashing the truck.
“They just stopped on the side of the road and luckily the truck didn’t go into a tree or building.”
Two of ADRA’s volunteers made a citizen’s arrest on one of the two suspects, while the other fled before police arrived.
“The truck is vital for our operations to support people in need, picking up from food banks and delivering to our centres. It’s part of our crucial logistics. So it was great that the truck was found,” Rebecca said.
Police confirmed they had arrested a man and a woman following the theft of a truck in Dandenong on 15 March.
Officers were told a white Mitsubishi truck was stolen from a garage on the site between 2.30pm and 3.15pm.
It was later found at the intersection of Alsace Street and Alexander Avenue about 10pm.
Police confirmed a woman was located in the truck and was arrested by a civilian, while a man who ran from the truck is yet to be located as the investigation remains ongoing.
A 52-year-old Noble Park woman was interviewed and released pending summons.
ADRA’s services were further impacted as the police held the truck for a week to conduct forensic testing and collect fingerprints from the suspect who fled.
“It’s sad that a charity which is established to support the community has been impacted,” Rebecca said.
“We’ve got 30 centres across Victoria but we have a very big program at Cardinia that utilises the truck every week. So that program was impacted greatly.
“That truck is our only refrigerated truck in the South East. It was very hot the week after. So it was an inconvenience when the truck was gone.
“In the week that the police had the truck for forensics, we had to use other vehicles to pick things from food banks.”
Unfortunately, the ADRA bus and team will have a break on Thursday 17 April.
“Due to issues with picking up and transporting food to the ADRA bus (in the weeks since our truck was stolen and not able to be used) and with volunteers being away, it was decided not to request groceries for Thursday 17 April,” they shared on social media.
“If you are in need of grocery assistance please come to the ADRA bus on Thursday 10 April to get supplies. The next grocery service will be Thursday 24 April and ADRA looks forward to serving you.”
ADRA is also taking steps to enhance security, including installing more cameras, a tracking device (a truck satellite finder), and potentially a device lock on the truck.
To prevent history from repeating itself, there needs to be a government, police, and community response with a model of crime/harm prevention, Rebecca said.
“We need more funding for agencies that are providing the crime/harm prevention model.
“When you working in a crime prevention model, you’re working with the community, you’re working with families, you’re working to create a sense of belonging and wellbeing within a community, so that people don’t have to go to extremes to get support.
“Also providing more youth prevention programs can decrease the amount of crime in our communities.”
Rebecca highlighted a number of factors that are contributing to the increasing crime rates in the South East.
“People who are vulnerable, people who have been impacted by family and domestic violence, by the cost of living and housing crisis – all creates a sense of hopelessness,” she said.
“We need better measures to address cost of living, housing and mental health challenges for the communities that we work with, so all people can experience hope and make a valuable contribution to society.
“Also by providing more youth resilience, educational, volunteering, youth mentoring programs which are value-based (like Pathfinders/Afri-Aus Care Ubuntu model, Outdoor Ed/Sports), can decrease the amount of crime in our communities because youth have purpose. Volunteering and helping others – builds generosity, resilience and hope.”
Anyone who witnessed the incident, has CCTV, dashcam footage or information is urged to contact Crime Stoppers.
