By Brendan Rees
A heartless thief has been caught on camera at Cranbourne Public Hall, where they were filmed allegedly ripping up and stealing plants from a front garden.
Cranbourne Public Hall treasurer Aaron Grant was left reeling after finding the missing plants in the garden bed and decided to take to social media, posting CCTV footage on Facebook to hunt down the culprits.
“It’s a low act, simple as that. For the sake of $47 I mean seriously, how petty can you be,” he said.
“My thought straightaway was maybe the wind had taken them as it does get quite windy.
“I control the whole CCTV side of things and I thought ‘You know what, stuff it,’ so I had a look and ended up pinpointing when it happened.”
Mr Grant believed the six Australian native plants that he had only planted four weeks ago were taken on Sunday 12 November at about 7.27pm.
The theft has left Cranbourne Hall $47 out of pocket, but he said it’s not the money he’s concerned about.
“I don’t care about that $47, I couldn’t care less … that’s the least thing, but I thought ‘stuff it’ the video is going online and especially if they’re embarrassed now.”
“Between five and 10 minutes with me putting it up, I had names already inboxed to me.”
He said he found images of a female with three children allegedly taking the plants, adding the “the footage was clear enough.”
“What’s the point of getting caught for the sake of $47 worth of plants? It sounds ridiculous.
“It’s just a low act – at the end of the day I’m so glad I use CCTV footage and got the word out there.”
He said it wasn’t the first time he had used Casey Crime Page to find vandals on camera.
“We were graffitied on our front doors about three, maybe four weeks ago.”
“Same thing happened. I put it on my page and got the word out there and once again within 10-15 minutes, a name was given to me. They were given to police. Police arrested them and did what they did.”
Cranbourne Police are investigating the theft.
