IT is disappointing at the best of times when your items are stolen.
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But, it becomes heartbreaking when the property was given to you by a deceased family member.
When Trevor Siemsen looked out his front door on Sunday, July 2, he could already see his ute had been ransacked.
Overnight, thieves took his tools, valued at an estimated cost of $4,500.
“Probably about half of them were my late father’s,” Mr Siemsen said.
“I had two tool bags choc-a-block full of tools.
“I had tools in draws and they took those as well.”
The Muswellbrook father said the hardware, which he later discovered was uninsured, was his means of buying things for his children.
“At the moment, I’m still getting a wage, but I can’t go to the mines because I’ve got no tools,” he said.
“Now I’ve just got to keep working for the next couple of months to be able to get funds to buy all the tools again.
“It’s going to take forever – there was close to 25 years of tools [stolen].
“My daughter, she was devastated because she bought me a whole heap of tools for Christmas.”
Mr Siemsen said this wasn’t the only incident of theft he had heard of recently.
And, he is urging the community to be aware of the issue and support each other.
“There was another house around the corner that got broken into while they were in the house,” he said.
“Keep an eye out – go and see your neighbours and just talk to them.
“Even if you don’t know who they are, just look out for each other.
“It’s got to stop.”
The Northview Estate resident believes the situation is deteriorating.
He said he would like to see more police patrols around town.
“The police have got to do the rounds around the area,” he said.
“Yeah, we’re a country town, but there needs to be more police here to help out.”
Anyone with information in relation to this incident, is asked to contact Crime Stoppers on 1800 333 000.