Clean getaway, but empty-handed

By Sarah Schwager
A LOT of planning was not enough to get thieves inside a Cranbourne car wash.
It’s A Breeze Car Wash manager Ted Cook could not believe the effort that had gone into the break-in last Thursday, only for thieves to be scared off by a security alarm.
The thieves cut a hole in a wire mesh fence behind the property next door, climbed through prickle bushes, on to storage containers next door and then on to the roof.
They then jumped across to the car wash office’s tin roof and unscrewed it before climbing into the ceiling and breaking through the plaster.
“It was a bloody lot of work,” Mr Cook said.
“The roof is 20 feet long by a metre wide and there are 28 screws as long as a finger in that roof. They had to have had a cordless drill.”
The thieves had only broken a hole the size of a football in the ceiling when the falling plaster triggered the alarm at 2.15am and they ran off.
“If they had got in, the only way out would be through the roof or to wait until I came along to unlock the padlocked door,” Mr Cook said.
“I was pretty nervous when I went to unlock the door the next morning.”
Mr Cook said that when fixing the roof he found two cigarette butts in the ceiling.
“They must have been up there for a while,” he said.
He said he was glad he had the alarm because nothing had been stolen, even though there would still be the costs of repairing the ceiling.
This was not the first time the South Gippsland Highway car wash office had been broken into.
Mr Cook said the last time, thieves had also been scared off by the alarm.
Any witnesses should contact Detective Senior Constable Ray Ross at Cranbourne CIU on 5995 1553.