By TANIA PHILLIPS
CABARITA-Pottsville Beach Lions Club have suffered a “kick in the teeth” after the theft of thousands of dollars in marquees and equipment from two storage containers at Les Burger Oval, Bogangar at the weekend.
Tweed Heads police are investigating the incident which also saw a Tweed Shire Council Storage shed at the same location broken into.
Acting Inspector Jason Dowd said the council had also lost $5000 in equipment during the incident which took place between 2.30pm on Friday afternoon and 6.30am on Monday morning.
Lions Club president Kevin Francis said he returned home from a trip to New Zealand on Monday to the news. He said the club was angry and devastated that all their hard work (voluntary) had not only been wasted but disrespected.
“We have two containers down there, one with our Lions club equipment and the other for our Greenbank fishing competition,” he said.
“They have been there for a long time and this is the first time anything like this has ever happened.
“We had two brand new marquees worth $700-$800 which we had just bought with a Federal Government grant. They have taken all our gazebos – we have to borrow one to have our market stall at Pottsville at the weekend. As well as the gazebos they have taken $2000 worth of prizes held over for next year’s Greenback as well as the drinks we sell at our barbecue and esky.
“We raise money for the community and to have this happen… it’s a bit of a kick in the teeth.
“We have only had the two blue marquees since September. We were looking forward to using them for our Caba Christmas Party on 7 December but we won’t have them. We’ve only had them up once.
“We’ve got insurance cover but it’s not that, it’s the fact that someone could come and take stuff belonging to a volunteer group.”
He said the club had been just preparing to have the Lions logos printed on the new marquees in the next week or so in preparation for the Christmas party.
Acting Insp Dowd said there were no suspects or cameras in the area and police were seeking information from anyone who may have seen or heard anything over the weekend or had seen them for sale.
He said the missing council items included two push mowers, four brushcutters, two chainsaws, a concrete saw, two blowers and a pole saw.
Acting Insp Dowd said it appeared the thief or thieves had obtained entry to the council shed through the front roller door and had stolen the tools, many of which were the Stihl brand and were engraved.
