UPDATE, Friday, 3pm: A CORIO man has been charged with handling stolen goods after a generator allegedly stolen from a Grassmere store last weekend was found in Geelong.
Subscribe now for unlimited access.
$0/
(min cost $0)
or signup to continue reading
Detective Senior Constable Richard Hughes, of the Warrnambool police crime investigation unit, said the 29-year-old had been charged with that crime and a range of other offences allegedly committed in Geelong.
He said that Geelong police detectives executed a search warrant on Tuesday and the generator was among items found at an address where no one was home.
The generator was stolen from the Grassmere Junction George Taylor store overnight last Saturday.
Detective Senior Constable Hughes said police officers then traced the occupants of the raided address to another property.
"The 29-year-old Corio man was arrested, interviewed and charged with a range of offences allegedly committed in Geelong and Warrnambool, including the handling of the generator," he said.
"He was remanded in custody to reappear in the Geelong Magistrates Court during early January."
The detective said inquiries were continuing into other offences including the burglary, theft, theft of a vehicle, arson and the ramming of a security monitoring company owner's vehicle at Grassmere last weekend.
Sunday, 6pm: Brazen burglars who used a stolen car to smash their way into the George Taylor’s Stores in Grassmere on Sunday then rammed the security guard’s car while trying to get away.
The impact of the crash sent the stolen vehicle spinning into the front windows before they fled the scene, dumping the car in a nearby street and setting it alight.
Business owner Greg Malseed said he was gutted by the break-in, the second at the store in eight months, which had left a damage bill of $50,000.
Mr Malseed said a Ford Territory was stolen from Purnim about 2am and used to back into the front doors of his store about 3am.
He said the offenders had removed the fuses from the powerboard, but the alarms were still activated.
When the security guard arrived on scene about nine minutes later, the offenders had managed to load $5000 worth of generators and goods into the vehicle.
“They hopped in the car and drove straight at him and ram-raided him, which has written his car off,” he said.
Mr Malseed said he was initially concerned that the offenders had taken some of the dozens of historic motorbikes housed at the store.
“We’ve got a lot of motorbikes in there worth and awful lot of money and it’s always a prime target,” he said.
Instead, Westinghouse 2400i generators and other goods such as torches were taken, including a generator which had already been sold and had been put aside for its owner to pick up on Sunday.
Mr Malseed said he had been on scene since about 3am cleaning up and would now think about putting bollards along the front of the store to stop ram-raids.
“We’re sitting out in the open, it’s dark and there’s no one around. It is a good target,” he said.
“We do have fairly sophisticated security, but on a ram-raid like that you can’t stop anything.
“No one needs this just before Christmas. It’s been tough enough for retail alone the last 12 months let alone something like this. It’s a pretty big kick in the guts.”
Mr Malseed has worked at the store for 35 years, and owned it the last 13 years, and said the business had been target a dozen times.
When the business was hit eight months ago, the door was pulled off the hinges and $3000 worth of goods stolen.
The force of Sunday’s impact dislodged the internal automatic doors, but Mr Malseed said luckily the large 50-year-old glockenspiel which sat above it wasn’t damaged.
Six months ago a Melbourne auction house approached them about selling the item, which they valued at $15,000, but the Malseeds declined because of the sentimental value of the handmade glockenspiel that once sat in Swintons.