SPORTS participants in Kerang suffered a double blow over the weekend with Riverside Park’s ride-on-mower stolen and a cricket pitch and its immediate surrounds vandalised.
The mower is believed to have been taken in the early hours of Sunday morning, with someone cutting padlocks on two gates and the machinery shed to remove it.
“I found the shed wide open and the mower missing,” Kerang Football Club secretary Anthony Lake said.
One of the gates on which a padlock was removed opens onto Wyndham street near Kerang’s Levee bank, while the other is an internal gate accessed from the junior oval.
The matter was reported to police, with Swan Hill detectives now investigating and a Crime Scene Services van was on scene Monday morning.
Mr Lake also took to Facebook on Sunday evening to call for anyone who saw any suspicious activity or vehicles with a trailer around the Riverside Park area recently to report the matter.
“The culprit/s obviously had local knowledge of the ground setup and knew where the internal gate on the junior oval led to and either entered or exited through the footy oval,” Mr Lake said in his Facebook post.
He estimated the missing Toro Z Master sit on diesel mower is only 12 to 18 months old and believes it is valued at $20,000 or more.
With the Riverside Park ovals not owned by Gannawarra Shire Council, mowing duties are carried out by volunteers, including Mr Lake who explained that mowing is currently required three times a week.
The club will now have to borrow a mower in order to maintain its grounds to the standard required for cricket.
A padlock on a small maintenance storeroom in the junior football changerooms was also cut, but Mr Lake said it appeared nothing was stolen from there.
In the incident of vandalism, also discovered on Sunday afternoon, a driver performing donuts damaged the west turf wicket block.
Mr Lake said it is uncertain when that damage occurred and with no cricket played in Kerang on Saturday it was possible it took place on Friday night.
The recent act of vandalism follows an incident on Anzac Day last year when extensive damage was done to Riverside Park’s junior football oval.
That left deep scars which needed to be filled with dirt to make the surface fit for play.
Anyone with further information on the weekend’s burglary or the cricket pitch vandalism can call Crime Stoppers on 1800 333 000 or contact local police.
