Thursday, August 24, 2023

Issue:

Mackay and Whitsunday Life

Crime Scene Chaos

“Very Good Fingerprints Have Been Taken”

A scene of chaos and devastation greeted the volunteers at All Abilities non-for-profit organisation when they entered their Casey Avenue address on Monday morning.

They discovered that thieves had “gone through every drawer in the building and emptied out every cupboard” in a destructive rampage which left the usually bustling community centre covered in shattered class and ruined.

Doors to the locked office were pried open, computers, laptops and office equipment stolen.

The central play area for children was a war scene, TVs pulled down from the walls, their wires ripped out and screens jumped upon.

Video games were ripped from their boxes and strewn across the floor.

The outside hose was left running and the fridge door left open in an ultimate act of defiance and destruction.

When asked what she suspected the thieves’ motives were, President of All Abilities Elsa van den Heever, said that they noticed every first aid kit in the building had been opened like they were looking for something – perhaps needles.

The one consolation from the devastation was that the thieves had been amateur enough to leave good quality fingerprints everywhere and blood from the shattered glass was able to give police excellent samples with which to track down the perpetrators.

“The police said we were very good at preserving the evidence,” said Elsa.

“They were very happy with the blood samples and said that very good fingerprints had been taken.”

All Abilities is a charity organisation which provides people of every ability, a safe place to play, relax and connect.

Elsa and her team had spent months reviving the service, cleaning it up and creating new programs, so this recent event has hit an even harder blow.

For the past two weeks they had been holding a school holiday Messy Playdate program and they also coordinate weekly wheelchair dancing classes.

Now, instead of planning a series of term-time activities for children, they are removing shattered glass from play equipment.

Elsa said, however, that they are determined to carry on.

“We would like to thank the police for doing such a good job and all the community for their well wishes,” she said.

“We are not going to let this incident stand in our way and will make every effort to move forward.”

The organisation is funded on donations, and they are currently hoping to raise money to pay for security cameras and an alarm.

Thieves went “through every drawer in the building and emptied out every cupboard” at All Abilities charity organisation. Photos supplied

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