By JESSE GRAHAM
DETECTIVES are calling on visitors to the Yarra Valley Chocolaterie to come forward with information, after a rare car worth $300,000 was stolen from the venue earlier this month.
Yarra Ranges Crime Investigation Unit (CIU) Detective Senior Constable Rod Newbery has called on visitors to the venue on the afternoon of 9 April to look through photos and videos taken on the day, after a vintage car was stolen from the car park.
The orange 1970 Ford Falcon GTHO Phase 1 was stolen from the car park between 1.40pm and 2.20pm on the Saturday afternoon, when its owner was inside with one of his daughters.
Det Sen Const Newbery said the car was parked at the far end of the car park, in a wide parking bay, and asked anyone who may have taken photos or videos of the car to come forward.
“It would have stood out, and I would have thought people would pay extra attention to it,” he said.
Police said at the time that the thief possibly followed the Seville man to the venue to steal it.
Det Snr Const Newbery said a man wearing a dark green jacket and a black – or dark-coloured – baseball cap, with sunglasses on top of the cap, was seen driving the car away.
“What I’m really hoping for is that, obviously, as busy as that chocolate factory gets in the afternoon, somebody would have had to have been near this guy when he got in the car,” he said.
“(We’re) hoping that someone has obviously seen somebody getting into it, and seen which direction it’s gone, to try and follow it up.
“If somebody, by chance, took any video, a photo, or anything on a phone would be fantastic, so let us know.”
The car was bearing club registration plates, reading 43143H, at the time of the theft.
Det Sen Const Newbery said the car had “$40 to $45 worth of fuel” in it at the time, and so the thief may have stopped at a service station in the Yarra Valley or surrounds.
He said the car had been sighted in the Yarra Valley and Melbourne – but said other similar cars may have been mistaken for the stolen one.
Anyone who may have spotted the car, or who has more information, is asked to call Crime Stoppers on 1800 333 000, or to submit a confidential crime report to www.crimestoppersvic.com.au
