A SPATE of thefts in the Gunbower district is damaging the social fabric that is so important to small communities, according to local residents.
Tom McGillivray’s butcher shop has been broken into twice in less than two months, despite attempts to secure the business.
Thieves first broke in last year by gaining access through a window, so Mr McGillivray installed a steel cage, but the offenders returned with tools to cut their way in.
McGillivray replaced the steel cage with bars, but the thieves broke in yet again earlier this month by jimmying the back door.
Sue McGillivray’s Workshop Coffee Shop was targeted last month, when thieves stole a small amount of cash that had been left in the till and caused extensive damage.
Mrs McGillivray said the break-in trend seemed to emerge about two years ago, with Riverland Trading and the Gunbower Roadhouse also hit since then, as well as numerous private properties.
In Leitchville, the Red Gum Bakery was burgled 12 months ago and items were stolen from the Leitchville Hotel about six weeks ago and the Cohuna Lotto and Clothing Centre was broken into in August.
Mrs McGillivray said hard-working small business owners couldn’t afford to contend with criminals.
“It’s very disappointing that we can’t sleep peacefully at night without worrying about low-lives breaking into our businesses,” she said.
“We don’t know what to do; we don’t want to be boarded up, looking out of barred windows and I’m scared that some landowner will get hurt trying to defend their property.
“If they’re going to do it again, just text me and I’ll leave the money out the front so they don’t do thousands of dollars of damage.”
Mrs McGillivray said she believed most of the break-ins were drug related, with thieves targeting cash and saleable items.
“There are probably a lot of different groups all affected by drugs and they think it’s their right to take what other people have worked hard for,” she said.
“Old people are feeling very vulnerable and that’s really sad.”
Local piggery owner Aeger Kingma recently had a tractor stolen, but he said the greatest impact of the thefts was social, not financial.
“We run the risk of losing the fabric that makes us really strong communities that look out for each other,” he said.
“People start to become suspicious of one another and we lose the fabric that makes this a great place to live and that we all treasure about small communities.
“There appears to be a group of people that has decided trusting communities are soft targets.”
Mr Kingma said communities needed to stay united in the face of crime.
“Relationships within communities are being eroded and I think that’s a bigger loss than the financial impact,” he said.
“We need to continue to trust our friends and not accept bad behaviour.”
Cohuna police officer, Sergeant Andy Rigg said a man in his 20s from Echuca had been charged in relation to the Leitchville Hotel theft and with numerous other break-ins in Gunbower, Numurkah and Rochester.
He said people couldn’t afford to leave properties and vehicles unlocked.
“People are looking for things they can move quickly and easily and get reasonable money for and most of the time it probably is related to drugs,” he said.
“The message is that unfortunately the days of leaving keys in ignition, wallets in cars, and houses and sheds unlocked are long gone.”
Sergeant Rigg said farm thefts were most common in the district.
“For example, there have been a number of solar-powered electric fence units stolen in the district and the issue is that these often don’t get noticed for days, weeks, months,” he said.
Sergeant Rigg said security kits for farms, businesses and residences were available from the Victoria Police crime prevention officer at Swan Hill.
