Couple behind Coast small business reveal devastating impact of vehicle theft

A van crashes on the side of a Gold Coast street. Two youths stumble from the scene before being arrested by police. At the other end of town, a small family business is left to pick up the pieces. READ OUR SPECIAL REPORT >>>

IT’S 8.30pm on a Tuesday. Nind St in Southport, normally so quiet by this hour, is lit up by flashing blue and red lights, their hue deepened against the dark canvas of the sky.

A small crowd has gathered on the pavement. They are standing in silence, adding to the peculiarity of the scene.

On the road beside them, between rows of parked cars, a white Toyota Hiace lies on its side, broken glass trailing like a comet’s tail behind it.

After hearing a bang and a screech, people come looking. But none could quite say how the van came to end up in this position.

A clue lies a couple of doors up, on grass to the front of Somerville Funerals, where paramedics are treating a patient. He is clearly a young boy.

He stays silent as the paramedics work, his gaze fixed upwards. They apply a neck brace, before wheeling him to an ambulance. He is not alone. His hands are cuffed. A group of police officers hover by his side.

The scene at Nind St in Southport after the stolen van was crashed. Picture: Keith Woods.

It later transpires that the boy, a 14-year-old from Southport, had been driving the van when it clipped a kerb at speed near the corner with Scarborough Street. In the passenger seat, a 13-year-old from Beenleigh.

The van slid down Nind St on its side, sparks flying, before coming to rest opposite the Railway Hotel, probably the first vehicle to travel the area in such a manner since the last train departed Southport station in the ’60s.

But unbeknownst to the police and paramedics on the scene, and certainly to the two young boys, this van had a special history all of its own.

CROOKS IN THE BEDROOM

At the other end of the Gold Coast, in Palm Beach, Ivana Veronika and her partner Louis Dimmy have endured a stressful day.

Ivana heads a business, Patio Link, which manufactures pet openings designed to be added to the tracks of sliding doors.

The Covid-19 pandemic has seen an upsurge in pet ownership, causing sales to spike at the small family firm.

They own one van, used to bring parts to their Varsity Lakes factory. It is that van that wound up badly damaged on a street in Southport.

“We are the only company that offers customised solutions,” says Louis.

“Custom parts, custom colours, every part of the door is customisable to suit all different types of dogs.

“When you get them custom made, to fit your height and match the colour of your frame, it just looks like part of the house.

“Still to this day no one has competed with us on that level.”

The van is vital to keeping the busy production schedule running.

“These days, in these Covid times, transport companies are so busy and service has deteriorated, so it’s important to have a van at your disposal to go and pick up supplies when you need them,” says Louis.

“Having your own transport solutions is very handy and now that it’s gone, we’re like, OK, what are we going to do?”

Ivana Veronika and partner Louis Dimmy at the Patiolink factory in Varsity Lakes. Picture: Keith Woods.

The van’s journey towards its ignominious arrival in Nind St had started only hours before.

It had been parked outside the Palm Beach home of employee Jakob Durcak. To his horror, when he woke at five to start his day, he realised that the van was gone. Then came the sickening realisation of how it had been stolen.

“They came up to his bedroom and took the keys off the bedside table where he was sleeping,” reveals Louis.

“Can you imagine?,” says Ivana. “To think that someone was in your room.

“They also took his flatmate’s bank card and they’ve done a couple of transactions.

“They’ve bought petrol and gone to the same cafe twice in Southport.”

It’s an invasive, upsetting act.

“Something needs to be done about it,” says Louis. “Everyone’s living in fear with this now.”

15 CARS STOLEN IN 14 DAYS

Ivana and Loius’s van was one of just 15 vehicles stolen in Palm Beach in the two weeks to last Sunday. Among the losses was a Range Rover taken from outside a house on Fifth Ave. It was found intact days later at the Hyperdome in Logan. A Laguna Ave home owner was less fortunate. Their car, stolen in the early hours of Saturday morning, was also found in Logan. But burned out.

“There doesn’t seem to be anything being done about it,” says Louis.

“You don’t hear stories about politicians and the mayor and police commissioner saying we need to address this issue.

“They’re breaking into people’s homes, and they go to the kitchen first, they’ll grab a knife and then they’ll come up to your bedroom. They’ll even threaten you if you’re awake. Why isn’t anything being done about it?”

Police say they are doing all they can – moving patrols into the area when reports of offences spike.

“The Gold Coast Police District employs a district tasking and coordination centre which ensures our response is agile and flexible and able to respond to incidents as and when they arise,” a spokesperson says.

“... Police can be moved around to where they are needed – when they are needed.

“Our officers are more mobile than ever before ... They will conduct patrols and respond to calls for service wherever they are required.”

For local MP Michael Hart, the problem is not the police response.

“You can’t blame the police,” he says. “They do their job, they catch these people.”

The problem, in his view, is what happens next.

“They need to be in jail, quite frankly,” he says. “You break into a place, you steal somebody’s livelihood, you should end up in jail. There has to be consequences.

“But what we’re seeing now is they get a slap on the wrist by a magistrate or judge, and then they stick their finger up at the TV cameras as they walk out of the court. It’s just a revolving door.”

MORE THAN A VAN

The consequences are borne by people like Ivana and Louis and their small team.

The van their business depended on is a write-off. They’ll have to pay the full cost of a replacement. In a cruel twist of fate, it wasn’t properly insured.

Two years ago, Ivana’s father, Ivan, “the linchpin of the family”, passed away. He had founded the Patio Link business in Sydney more than 20 years ago. The van was in his name.

It was a time of incredible, conflicting emotions, because not only did Ivana lose her beloved father, six days later she gave birth to son Kai. And she still had the business to run.

A couple of months later, Ivana and Louis moved to the Gold Coast, bringing the business with them.

With everything that was happening, nobody thought to transfer the van’s insurance out of Ivan’s name.

“It was in his name, and because we diverted all our mail to Queensland when we moved up here, we didn’t think to divert mail in his name,” says Louis.

“It was just a small oversight.”

Its loss will cost them thousands. But that’s not what hurts deepest. Because this van carried not just tools and spare parts for the factory, it carried memories.

“That van, there’s a lot of history with that van,” says Louis. “Ivana’s dad had the van, got the van, sign-writed the van. It was his van. It was his choice of vehicle.

“He drove the van as his daily vehicle even though he had bought himself a sports car years ago. He chose to drive the van every day and that van was him.

“And now it’s gone. And it’s kind of like the last part of him that you’re holding on to is gone with it.”

The incident has also left other scars.

“People don’t want to go to bed living in fear and we’re doing that every night,” says Louis. “Every night it’s ‘have you locked the doors, have you got the keys, where did you put the keys’.

“You shouldn’t have to live like that in this country.”

Follow @keithjwoods

Originally published as Couple behind Coast small business reveal devastating impact of vehicle theft