Cops watched on as Melbourne man Troy Kellett fell to his death in Adelaide

Friends say a man who plummeted to his death from a shipping container was behaving bizarrely in the months before he died, as it emerged police were watching on as he fell.

Police were watching on with the aid of night vision as Troy Kellett fell to his death. Picture: Brenton Edwards

Police were watching when a Victorian man plunged to his death from a shipping container after receiving a tip-off drugs were being stored at the cargo depot, it can be revealed.

Sources have told the Herald Sun that Serious and Organised Crime Branch detectives along with South Australia’s STAR group, a specialist tactical police unit, had the Adelaide site under surveillance when Troy Kellett fell 12m at 12.30am on Sunday, July 9.

It is understood Mr Kellett, 43, who lives in Melbourne’s west, was scaling containers stacked six-high with the aid of a grappling hook and rope when the incident happened.

The Herald Sun has been told police were using night vision during the covert operation and the fall may have been recorded.

As new details about Mr Kellett’s incident emerge, authorities believe the father of four was searching for a container of drugs amid speculation of a cocaine shipment.

SA Police has refused to comment on the operation but a spokesman stated its officers were “first on scene and rendered first aid”.

Police were so quick to respond they nabbed two men who were with Mr Kellett: Dasmir Kulafovski, 47, and Renalnto Bylo, 32. The pair have been charged with trespass and firearm offences and are due back in court next week.

Troy Kellett died after falling 12m as police watched on. Picture: Supplied

Authorities suspect the trio were working together and had earlier granted the charged pair bail in the hope they would lead detectives to the potential drug stash. But they avoided the Outer Harbor dock site and police fear the container has been shifted.

Friends have revealed Mr Kellett did not attend the funeral of a very close friend, missed a meeting to sign documents that would have sold his business assets for $8m and phoned in sick in the days leading up to his mystery death. He drove to Adelaide in a new ute, not a work truck, didn’t take his maritime security pass and is likely to have been in SA for two days before his death.

Detectives are scouring his mobile phone to see who he was communicating with and where it was used between mid-afternoon Thursday and the time of his death.

“He was in and out of the office for the first part of the week, which was normal for Troy, but on Thursday he didn’t show up,” a colleague said.

“I remember it so clearly because the day before he said he wanted to talk to me, but would see me in the office the next day. When he didn’t show up I assumed he had been at his friend’s funeral and just got waylaid.

“I was passing his house after work, around 2.30-3pm, and just thought I’d call in to see how the funeral went.

“He took ages to answer the door and when he did, he told me he hadn’t been to Ange’s (Angelo Avram) funeral because he wasn’t feeling well. They were best drinking buddies, meeting up almost every night either at Seagulls in Newport or the Millers Inn in Altona North. They were very, very close. Troy said he was ‘f--ked up’ and had cramps. Then he said he wouldn’t be at work the next day.

It is understood Troy Kellett was scaling containers stacked six-high with the aid of a grappling hook. Picture: Brenton Edwards

“This was extremely unusual. He never said he would be sick the day before in all his life … he looked immaculate, hair done, fresh, nothing wrong with him at all. It was weird.”

On Friday, $7.94m hit Mr Kellett’s bank account for the sale of land where his container transport business was in Chambers Rd, Altona North.

Brother Corey told the Herald Sun: “He was a multi-millionaire on Friday and dead on Sunday.”

But the transport company boss was to receive an ever bigger windfall that day.

Gareth Hearnden, managing director of Norman Carriers in Laverton North, had a deal in place to buy Mr Kellett’s trucks and other assets for $8m.

Mr Hearnden received the paperwork and called Mr Kellett to come in, sign on, and the money would be in his bank account by the day’s end.

But Mr Kellett, who told his workers he was sick, told Mr Hearnden he was “already on the road on a job” and it would have to wait until Monday.

“Whatever he was doing had to be pretty significant to turn down almost $16m being in your bank account.

“What was so important, so urgent, that you couldn’t send someone else to do the job? That’s what we are all asking.”

Photos of Mr Kellett and Mr Hearnden were also taken next to their respective trucks, in anticipation of the documents being signed Friday and an announcement of the deal at 3pm Monday.

A celebratory barbecue was also planned for Kellett Australia workers.

Instead, the business deal is under a cloud, shrouded in ­legalities, insurance issues and probate and the employees are out of work, with Kellett Australia now ceasing to exist.

Mr Kellett, who had all the equipment to transport a shipping container, drove to Adelaide in his Toyota HiLux and did not take his work pass that would have gained him lawful entry to the docks.

Sources said the trio were found with a grappling hook on a rope, which they believed Mr Kellett was using to scale the containers when he fell.

Friends and employees have described Mr Kellett’s behaviour in the past six months as “bizarre” and “strange” to the point an informal work meeting was held due to mounting concerns for his welfare.

“We used to go out drinking together after work but since the start of the year or so, he has been going to the same places but at different times almost to avoid his old friends and start hanging out with these weird new people, things like that,” a colleague said.

“He was agitated and stressed out, not himself. A few of us got together to see how we could help him but he was so distant. We felt helpless.”