Mother of three Melliah Tooth never thought she would pin the label ‘victim of crime’ on herself while living in her own country hometown.
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She never thought she would see the day her car would be burnt out and police on her door step at 6am – especially on the day of her grandfather’s funeral.
Her car was stolen last week from where it broke down at her husband’s work place and set alight on a sports oval in Mulyan.
It was completely destroyed.
On a day she should have been concentrating on her family and grieving, Melliah and her husband Murray were forced to instead focus on insurance, police reports and even dealing with towing the wreck from the council-owned site.
It might have been an old Mitsubishi Magna on its last legs, but it wasn’t a luxury, she pointed out.
With two parents working variable hours juggling daycare and soon school, it was a necessity.
Inside were hundreds of dollars worth of car seats, children’s belongings and new school items – even the family’s annual pass to Wyangala Dam - will have to be replaced.
She wants to warn people not to be complacent about Cowra and crime and if they saw anything, to report it to the police.
“Someone said to me, I drove past it at 9.30pm and it was still there,” Melliah said, frustrated on Friday.
The car was left on Binni Ck Rd when it refused to start after her husband finished his work shift.
They had every intention of grabbing some jumper leads and bringing it home that night, but tired after organising the last minute details of the funeral the following day, they thought it would be safe there.
“There was the assumption that it would be fine, it was in full view parked on Binni Creek Rd, it’s Cowra,” she said.
“My brother feels terrible, because he was the one at 11.30pm who said, ‘it’ll be right Mel, we’ll get in the morning’.
“We’ve heard there was a lot of stuff happening, but you never think it would happen to you.
“They would have had to hot wire it too.”
Instead, they received a knock on the door the following morning from police informing her it had been stolen and burnt out.
The family had been saving to buy a new car, but now, will have to fast track the expensive decision.
“It’s not a luxury item, it’s not a car we had because we had oodles of money, it was an old car we were hoping to keep running until we could afford to replace it.”
If you can help police with their inquiries contact Cowra station on 63415099; or Crimestoppers on 1800 333000.