By Kath Gannaway
POLICE and friends of Warburton couple Ken and Bessie Knight are outraged at the audacity of thieves who broke into the elderly couple’s unit on Thursday night.
Mr Knight’s ute was stolen from the adjoining carport after the thieves took keys off a hook inside the unit.
A mobile phone, purse and other personal items were also taken from the kitchen.
Mr and Mrs Knight live in one of 10 units at YarraView Retirement Village in Warburton.
While the theft of Mr Knight’s ute has been a cruel blow to the 79-year-old retiree who is well known for his community work in the town, it is the invasion of the couple’s home which has police and neighbours worried.
The elderly couple were asleep in a bedroom just a few metres from the back door where the intruders broke in.
“I don’t antagonise anybody… I don’t think we have any enemies,” said Mr Knight trying to make sense of the incident.
“It makes you feel a bit funny to have someone in your home,” Mrs Knight said.
Both feel they are fortunate they didn’t wake and said one of their neighbours can’t sleep now without a chair up against the door.
Mr Knight said the thieves had worked their way through a bundle of keys to unlock a chain barrier which was erected at the gateway to the village after another resident had his car stolen some time ago.
Charmaine Graham, a neighbour, said she was furious that Mr Knight, who works as a volunteer as part of the town’s highly respected River Crew, had been targeted.
“There’s not a day that this man is not out there helping someone with his trailer, delivering furniture or working with the other beautiful old men on the river.
“How dare anybody do something like that to anybody, let alone him,” she said.
“To just walk into a person’s home, in a retirement village, is just sickening.”
Police recovered the 1001 Ford Courier late on Friday on the Melbourne Water Pipeline east of Big Peninsula Tunnel Road.
Sergeant Paul Bell of Warburton Police said police were keen to catch whoever was responsible.
He said the car had been taken for forensic analysis and that the unit had also been tested for fingerprints and other forensic evidence.
“It’s particularly disturbing that this sort of thing happens while the victims are asleep in their own home and especially when all he (Mr Knight) does with the ute is help the community,” Sgt Bell said.
He said the ute, which had roof racks and white water pipes attached, was stolen sometime between 10pm on 1 February and 7.30am the next day.
Police would like to hear from anyone who saw the car, possibly between 4am and 6am, either in the town, around Donna Buang or out at McMahons Creek.
The ute was not insured so Mr Knight is pinning his hopes on the chance it is not too badly damaged.
Mr and Mrs Knight have started packing for a caravanning holiday but that also is on hold now.
The ute is not only the couple’s transport, it is Mr Knight’s tool of trade for all the community work he does.
“It’s not a selfish ute,” he said. “It does a lot of good work.
“Tomorrow is ‘D’ Day. I suppose we’ll know what we’re up against then,” he said.
Mr Knight still can’t fathom why it was necessary for someone to invade the couple’s home and steal from them.
“The thing that worries me is that somebody for a bit of a pleasure drive has done this.
“If they had come and asked me, said they wanted to go to Melbourne, or anywhere, I’d have taken them,” he said.
And no-one doubts he would have.
Warburton Police can be contacted on 5966 2006.
