By Sahar Foladi
As soon as they thought they’ve had enough, the Bakhtar Community was slammed with the news of a third burglary since December 2022.
The first two incidents took place in December and now a third incident recently has left the community shattered.
CEO Bassir Qadiri said they had a truck load of items, including sewing machines among other items, delivered by the Rotary Club.
“At 3pm we put everything inside and we left because we had distribution the next day. Next day at 10am we came to see everything was a mess.”
The burglars had left the entire warehouse a mess, leaving the Bakhtar community volunteers to clean it up for the second time now.
“Even in main building they smashed all the items and broken a lot of stationery in the office.”
The police have been called for the third time now and investigators are working on the case.
The Bakhtar Community warehouse in Noble Park is council land which has been leased to the organisation to carry out their work for the community.
They’ve been unable to install a CCTV camera on premises due to lack of electricity.
Mayor Eden Foster said: “It was agreed from the outset that electricity would not be provided as it would be a large cost to council, and the building is scheduled for demolition to increase open space in the municipality.”
However, the council have been working closely with the organisation to build a fence and place bollards to put an end to the burglaries.
“Council will pay for a contractor to have these works completed. Bakhtar Community Organisation will receive a key to lock the removable bollards to further assist with their operations,” Cr Foster said.
Council is also discussing with Bakhtar Community Organisation about the possibility of installing a battery solar powered CCTV camera in the short-term.
Meanwhile, the organisation will distribute whatever is left and will delay the distribution for the next week as they plan to get works done with the council.
“We promised some people to come take extra packages – we don’t want them to go empty handed. We cannot take risks so we delayed the next delivery, so we’ll have it in February in Hallam.
“Once everything is secured, then we will resume the normal operation,” Mr Qadiri said.
The organisation is looking forward to its free music night event on 28 January in Keysborough before they can resume normal operations again.
