Tears as stolen ute rams through ‘heart’ of Walkerston
WATCH: Three minutes of chaos and destruction has torn the heart out of a community club
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Three minutes of chaos and destruction have torn the heart out of a community club and reduced its manager to tears.
"I'm six foot three and a 135kg and I've cried three times in my life, and once was this morning about 3.30am," Western Suburbs Leagues Club general manager Kingsley Theiber said.
"I wasn't prepared to see what was on site this morning."
Shortly before 3am, a masked diver ploughed a stolen Toyota HiLux utility through the front doors of the Walkerston club.
Mr Theiber said in just three minutes the ute rammed the front entrance 15 times, causing hundreds of thousands of dollars in damage to the Branscombe Rd business.
With the first attack breaking through the doors, Mr Theiber said the relentless destruction through the rest of the club was needless.
"When you walk through the destruction there it's ridiculous," he said.
"Why go and do all this excessive damage?"
Mr Theiber said the masked drivers efforts were in vain, as the ATM was completely empty.
He said the stolen ute was abandoned at the end of Branscombe Rd.
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The hallway was left covered in broken glass, crumbled concrete and with the entry way surrounded by broken steel bars poking from the walls.
After a decade at the club, and 25 years in the industry, Mr Theiber said this was the worst break-in he had ever seen.
Wiping away tears, Mr Theiber said the attack on the club "makes it very hard" to recover from the devastation of 2020.
Mr Theiber said the pandemic had closed Wests for three and a half months, forcing him to put almost 30 staff on JobKeeper.
As he surveyed the damage, he said his greatest fear was that it would mean he had to tell his remaining 16 staff they would not be paid for two weeks.
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Mr Theiber said luckily the club could open on Thursday, but the main entrance and reception would be blocked off.
"The best thing you can do is come down and support us and visit," he said.
"We're a community-based club. All the money we make goes back into our facilities and sporting things.
"This is obviously another hit we now have to take."
Mr Theiber said it was humbling to watch the community support flood in, with cleaners volunteering their time, volunteers clearing the rubble and even one woman who dropped off two packets of Maltesers for the staff.
"Honestly it's unbelievable for a little club like us that is based in the middle of cane fields, it makes you feel very warm at heart," he said.
"It does put faith back in humanity for you."
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