By Brendan Rees
A Cranbourne father has been left gutted after he says bandits used scissors to start the ignition of his car before driving away with it.
Roof tiler Brendan Hartshorn says he will find it hard to come up with the money to buy another car after his Nissan Pulsar 1989 hatchback was allegedly stolen from his Radovic Court driveway about 6.15am on Tuesday 19 March.
“I was quite devastated,” the 28-year-old said.
“I didn’t even notice until I got up to go to work the next morning…Didn’t see a thing, didn’t hear nothing.”
According to Mr Hartshorn, thieves attempted to break-into his car on Sunday night, 17 March after he found a snapped pair of scissors in the ignition the following morning.
“I couldn’t lock my car at all on Monday night” he said.
“It’s a bit of a blow because I was relying on the car to get to work and I didn’t have any money saved up to buy another car so now I’ve got to outsource the money and get another loan.
“What hurt the most was my daughter realised she couldn’t go for a drive in dad’s car anymore, she’s only four; she didn’t understand.”
Mr Hartshorn appealed to the public for information on Facebook’s Casey Crime Page which he says led to a “couple of tradies (who) reckon they’d seen a couple of kids running off” from his car in Cranbourne.
“I did get some information from Casey Crime Page; they pretty much gave me names, addresses straight away.”
Police say the Pulsar was recovered in Rainwater Drive, Lyndhurst on Wednesday 20 March.
“(Police) found it running on the site. No keys. Police told me they started with a pair of scissors,” Mr Hartshorn said.
Mr Hartshorn said he found his daughter’s car seat, worth $180 in a nearby park, in which the strap had been cut “so I can’t use it anymore.”
Upon inspection of his car, he said it had been “trashed” and was “undriveable”.
“I’m just going to scrap it because it’s just a complete mess and it’s just going to cost me more money to fix it.
“I’d like to make people aware to lock their cars,” Mr Hartshorn said.
No arrests have been made at this stage and Cranbourne Police are investigating.
Anyone with information is urged to contact Crime Stoppers on 1800 333 000 or submit a confidential report online at www.crimestoppersvic.com.au.
