‘Degrading’ theft targets disability charity group

A charity group dedicated to bring joy to the disabled have been left feeling ‘degraded’ after thieves targeted the group’s facility.

DISGUSTED: Lockyer Valley RDA volunteer Siranee Parkinson and secretary Bobbi Dingle have been left furious by the break in.

A LOCAL charity group dedicated to bring joy to the disabled have been left feeling “degraded” after thieves targeted the group’s facility.

Lockyer Riding for the Disabled is today picking up the pieces after discovering their Regency Downs facility had been ransacked overnight.

Volunteer Siranne Parkinson was driving past the facility this morning when she noticed several shipping containers were open.

“I normally come every Tuesday anyway, but I thought I might stop in now,” she said.

The perpetrators have alegidly cut their way through a fence the group had only put up on Sunday, to access the grounds.

Several shipping containers holding riding equipment and an office were broken into and the contents rifled through.

Lockyer Valey RDA volunteer Siranee Parkinson and Secretary Bobbi Dingle with one of the shipping containers broken into.

The thieves made off with a $3000 generator the group had purchased through a government grant.

Secretary Bobbi Dingle said the theft was devastating.

“It’s our power because we don’t have power on the grounds,” Ms Dingle said.

“It attaches to our car fridges so that the kids have cold water and now its gone.

“It’s our everything that generator.”

Tragically, the items won’t be covered by insurance.

Stanley knife left during the breakin at Lockyer Valley RDA

The thieves also took a horsedrawn carriage the group was restoring on a “joy ride”, leaving it out in the open several hundred metres from where it was stored.

Ms Dingle said the carriage was extremely heavy and would have taken several people to move.

“It’s used for people in wheelchairs who cannot get out of the wheelchair so they can still have that experience with the horses,” she said.

“We were restoring it and fixing it and training a horse and it’s been dragged down the paddock on a joy ride.”

The experience had left Siranee Parkinson furious.

“It makes me feel a little bit yucky,” she said.

“They just have no regard for a community group that’s trying to provide a service to disabled people.”

Ms Dingle agreed.

“It’s kind of degrading,” she said.

“(They) felt like they were privilege more than people with special needs.”

Police are aware of the incident.

If you have any information that could help police, call crimestoppers on 1800 333 000 or Police Link on 131 444.

Enjoy local news? Be the first to know what’s happening with the Gatton Star’s brand new newsletter. Subscribe here.

Originally published as