THIEVES have targeted the Blue Lake Public Golf Links again, this time stealing a utility and owner Bill Burley is now taking the criminal activity as a personal attack.
Sometime between 8pm Saturday and 6am Sunday, thieves entered the course and broke into the greenskeepers shed, stealing a Toyota Hilux utility and other mechanical items.
Mr Burley noticed the utility was missing when he arrived at the course on Sunday morning.
“They used bolt cutters to cut the chain to the gate and the roller door is pretty much knackered now,” he said.
“In addition to the utility they stole chainsaws and whipper snippers as well as tampering with other things in the shed.”
The incident follows an almost identical theft from the course just weeks earlier on October 17 where thieves stole a lawnmower, a compressor, two chainsaws, two whipper snippers, tool sets and a heavy duty blower.
Mr Burley said he was now taking the incidents personally.
“It’s just demoralising when everyone’s done so much work to get this course up and running again, especially when people have been so generous and some of those items have been stolen as well,” he said.
“We are taking it personally, it’s hard not to when it’s happened twice, but we hope it’s not personal and it’s just some idiots who think we are an easy target, which we will not be from now on.”
Mr Burley said he was left in disbelief when he realised the public course had been targeted again.
“It was unbelievable, when I opened the roller door and saw the utility was gone I honestly thought someone must have borrowed it for the weekend,” he said.
“Our course superintendent Daniel Christian was away for the weekend and I reluctantly had to make a phone call to him, which I do not like doing when staff are away, but I just had to get to the bottom of
it.”
Mr Christian recently took over the role at the course and said the thefts had left him unsettled on both occasions.
“The reality is it has happened twice now in a matter of weeks and when you arrive and see the gates open and the roller door jemmied open it leaves you with a pretty sick feeling,” he said.
“There’s a lot of people working really hard at this club – staff and volunteers – to help it keep going and survive and for someone to ruin that atmosphere and take away from your livelihood in a way is pretty hard to swallow.”
While staff such as Mr Christian were still trying to come to terms with the thefts, he highlighted the continued community support as a motivation to keep looking forward.
“Even today Barry Maney Ford supplied us a utility in the interim and there’s just been a lot of people donating tools that we use on a daily basis,” he said.
“We had a volunteer day today, which we have every month and despite what happened it was still all systems go.
“It’s pretty mind-blowing the fact that people are so willing to help out, so although there are people out there that are happy to break-in and steal stuff, there are a lot of good people out there as well, which you have to keep in mind.”
Mr Burley said they are now upping the ante with their security, with a local electrical company offering to come on board and install cameras on the premises.
He said he was hopeful the people responsible would be caught.
“They attended and we know they can only do so much,” he said.
“I just hope we can catch these people, so then hopefully that might help someone else who may become a target for their thieving activity.”
