vandals have ransacked a disabled training facility for the second time in a week – plastering graffiti on the floor, walls and ceiling, smashing windows, stealing a piano and even urinating on the floor.
The site, on Kalinda Road in Lake Wyangan, is currently a training centre for Post School Options and has been offered to the Men’s Shed as a base of
operations for their group activities.
The latest attack has Men’s Shed members furious that escalating vandalism has seen the centre repeatedly attacked and progressively destroyed in the past two weeks.
The situation came to a head on the weekend when Men’s Shed member Athol Hillsley walked into the centre to see two teenage girls acting suspiciously.
The young girls ran off, but not before allowing Mr Hillsley to get a good look at the culprits.
“They were young girls – one around 16 years old and the other about 14 – and they had two dogs with them,” he said.
“They both ran past me and into a [nearby] orange orchid with the dogs following them.”
Men’s Shed president Greg McCarten said the girls would have had to have been around for hours to do so much damage.
“Something has happened here every second day for the last two weeks and the place is being destroyed.
“It was only luck that someone walked in when they did or the place would have been completely demolished,” he said.
The attack follows a break-in over the June long weekend that saw vandals smash windows to gain entry, spray paint walls, overturn furniture and swipe a treasured piano that was only days away from being relocated.
“Last week we were looking at sweeping out a bit of dirt and dust and now we’re looking at having to paint, replace all the broken windows and doors and replace all the equipment that’s been destroyed or stolen,” Mr McCarten said.
“We don’t have many options to stop this happening so we’re going to clean it up as best we can and remove anything that can be used to further damage the place.”
Post School Options president Anne Napoli is outraged that this act of vandalism has occurred so soon after the last incident.
“It is disgraceful. I feel sick in the stomach that someone could do this,” she said.
“If we’re serious about teaching these vandals a lesson, we need to make sure they don’t keep getting away with it.
“I don’t care how young they are, they should know better.”
Mrs Napoli said the sheer size and weight of the piano means more than one person was involved.
“They would have needed manpower to move it and a decent vehicle to transport it,” she said.
“I just hope I can appeal to them to consider what they have done and their conscience makes them want to return it.”
Post School Options and Ningana Enterprises are joint trustees. Most recently Post School Options has used it for art classes and a hobby farm.
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