Despite being completely blind, Brian Welch knew straight away that thieves had taken off with the model planes his father had spent 20 years building before he died.
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When Mr Welch, 71, opened the shed at his father's Koroit property for the first time in six months, the door was unlocked and when he put his hand out the cobwebs were gone.
But that wasn’t the only thing missing.
Mr Welch’s father, Lionel, who died at the age of 94 in 2016, spent his last “20 odd” years breathing new life into discarded beer cans.
Not much of a drinker himself, the former farming contractor and Koroit Saints fan would scour Victoria Park after footy games and pick up as many VB, Melbourne Bitter and Hahn leftovers as he could before turning them into aluminium planes.
Allan said his father would have spent thousands of hours making hundreds of the models.
And with up to 12 on the go at any given time, it was hard to pinpoint how long each one took to create.
Lionel would then fetch up to $50 for each plane through word of mouth when he caught the train to Melbourne to visit relatives, while also giving plenty away to friends, his son said.
Those planes used to fill up his father’s house on Murray Street, Koroit, and soon spilled into his shed next door, with close to 60 of them stored there last time Allan checked the block of land in June.
The burglary represents about $3000 worth of stolen goods, but Allan said that wasn’t what hurt most.
“Until they're gone they don't mean as much,” he said. “But when they're not there a bit of him is gone as well. So it's not the money, it's the sentimental value.
“Hopefully the police can recover them, but I know it's a long shot. It would be a great relief to get them back because it's part of him really.”
Allan said he was glad he still had six planes in his own shed in Warrnambool but finds the burglary quite puzzling.
“There was nothing really valuable in the shed – just planes and cobwebs,” he said. “And the planes don’t stack up too well, so they would have been hard to move in bulk.”
Warrnambool police Detective Senior Constable Richard Hughes said if anyone had information on the whereabouts of the stolen planes to contact the crime investigation unit on 5560 1116.
