General News
19 January, 2023
Ward family robbed on holiday
David Ward and his family are recovering from a brazen robbery during which thieves raided their holiday rental home – while Mr Ward was in the back yard and his wife Jenny and family members were asleep. The Wards were at the unit on New Year's...
David Ward and his family are recovering from a brazen robbery during which thieves raided their holiday rental home – while Mr Ward was in the back yard and his wife Jenny and family members were asleep.
The Wards were at the unit on New Year's Eve when thieves entered through an unlocked front door and stole a handbag containing money and credit cards and a set of car keys from a table.
Mr Ward and his son-in-law, Cam, were enjoying a drink in the back yard just metres away, while Mrs Ward, daughter Erin and granddaughter Paige, 2, slept inside.
Mr Ward owns the Wimmera Mallee News group - incorporating The Horsham Times, Warracknabeal Herald, The Dimboola Banner and The Rainbow Argus - and lives in Warracknabeal.
The family was staying in Mildura at the time - a favourite holiday destination over the past 20 years.
“Normally I’d lock the front door when I’m going to bed but we were just out the back and never gave any thought to it," he said.
"When we did come inside about one o’clock we locked the doors and went to bed. Then next morning Jenny couldn’t find her bag and then Cam went outside and the car had gone."
When it was realised that the handbag had been stolen with the car, the Wards frantically contacted their banks.
Fortunately, one of the banks had noted unusual spending activity and had already blocked the card, but hundreds of dollars was spent on another card.
The next day the car – owned by Cam and Erin – was discovered dumped and torched at Yelta.
Mr Ward said he accepted that a failure to lock the front door had made the family vulnerable, and he advised others to be wary.
He said young, opportunist thieves were the suspected culprits, and he urged parents and community leaders to do more to keep young people from falling into a pattern of crime.
“It’s absolutely endemic, this problem," he said. "I see it everywhere I go.
“There’s no responsibility and they aren’t being taught right from wrong.
"They aren’t being taught to respect other people’s property, they aren’t being taught that if they want something, like a nice car or whatever, you've to work for it.”
The police discovered the SUV on Yelta's Old Wentworth Road, engulfed in flames after being stolen roughly 36 hours prior.
"We located the car two days after it was stolen from the area around our vacation rental," Mr Ward said.
"During that time, they used Jenny's credit cards to fill the car's tank before torching it in the middle of the road.
“It certainly leaves a bad taste in your mouth.”