Some stolen equipment returns home to cemetery

THE recovery of some items reported as stolen from the Smythesdale Cemetery recently is bittersweet for trust members and volunteers.

Sweet, because at least some of the many thousands of dollars worth of power tools and equipment reported as stolen last month, have been recovered by police and are now back where they belong.

Bitter, because not all of the items reported missing have been recovered, costly damage has been done, and the experience is now forcing the local cemetery trust to look at ramping up security.

Smythesdale Cemetery Trust chair Alwyn Parker said there was some good news when police recovered some of the cemetery’s missing items, located among many things that had been reported stolen from other places, when they executed a search warrant at a Sebastopol address.

“About $40,000 worth of stuff altogether was taken and police found our little tractor and push mower and whipper snipper,” Mr Parker said.

“But the little tractor was damaged and is now getting repairs. A ride-on mower is still missing and hand tools are still missing as well as a set of aluminium ramps used for the mower, and the tractor deck has gone missing as well.

“We had camera footage of a couple of vehicles and that did help police, but it’s just a headache and it means we’ve got to rely on volunteers to bring in their machines.”

While there were already security measures in place, including the CCTV cameras that proved helpful, Trust members say the incident is forcing them to look at spending more money on increasing security measures.

“It’s something we have to look at which is really sad,” said Trust secretary Clare Judd.

Mr Parker said it’s very disappointing that many cemeteries across the wider region have similarly reported having items stolen in recent months, robbing the community of both expensive and necessary maintenance equipment, and of trust.

“I think it’s shit. Really terrible. The lowest of the low to steal from a cemetery,” said Ben Hornak, a local volunteer at the Smythesdale cemetery. Police confirmed a Sebastopol man was charged and bailed to appear at Ballarat Magistrates’ Court.