By XAVIER SMERDON
A HOPPERS Crossing aged care resident experienced the best and worst of the Wyndham community earlier this month.
Delia Portlock, who lives with an acquired brain injury after she was in a car accident in 1986, had just bought a large amount of groceries from her local Woolworths supermarket on the corner of Hogans Rd in Hoppers Crossing when she became a victim of crime.
After realising she had forgotten to buy something, Ms Portlock drove her scooter, which she relies on for mobility, back to the supermarket and parked it out the front, leaving it for just two minutes.
When she returned home she realised that her groceries were missing.
“Because I have the brain injury, I thought that I had just left them somewhere at home,” Ms Portlock said.
“I realised that they must have been stolen from the back of my scooter and I was just crying.
“Because I live on a pension, I haven’t got much money to spare.”
An opportunistic thief had stolen $40 worth of groceries, including toilet rolls and milk, from Ms Portlock while her back was turned.
Noticing how distressed she was, the manager of the store, Vicky, told Ms Portlock to pick the items she had just purchased.
Without a receipt to prove her purchase, Ms Portlock was stunned when Vicky told her to take the items for free.
“She said ‘off you go’, and that was really wonderful,” she said.
“Something terrible happened and something good has come out of it.
“It’s just great that something like that brought out a great thing in someone’s personality.”
Ms Portlock’s trusty dog Woody witnessed the whole incident, and might be encouraged to make some noise in the future.
