Expensive Stop At Blackbutt

20160623 Nissan Navara — Did you see anyone hanging around this trayback 4WD in Blackbutt on Monday? The Nissan Navara has a sign reading ‘Pickering Plumbing and Gas’ across the rear of the tray (Photo: Gregelyn Pickering)

June 23, 2016

A Sunshine Coast family is counting the cost of a visit to the South Burnett after thousands of dollars worth of tools were stolen from their 4WD in broad daylight on Monday.

Gregelyn and Guy Pickering and their young daughter visited the Bunya Mountains at the weekend.

Travelling back, they stopped their silver Nissan Navara outside the Blackbutt Bakery about 11:00am or 11:30am on Monday.

Guy’s parents, who were travelling in a separate vehicle, pulled up a couple of car spaces behind them.

“We usually stop at the bakery to get a quick bite,” Gregelyn told southburnett.com.au.

“Our little girl was asleep in the car so I stayed with her while my husband went inside.”

But then the toddler, who is almost two, woke up so Gregelyn thought she’d get out to stretch her legs and take the little girl down to the park to have a run around.

That’s when she noticed an older man walking behind the 4WD.

“I just had a gut feeling that he was watching us,” she said.

She said he was in his late 50s, with grey hair and a sunken face, wearing light grey jeans and a red flannelette top.

Gregelyn took notice because she feared he may have been watching them because of the child.

While her husband waited for their coffees, and his parents sat at one of the tables, Gregelyn took her daughter down to the toilets in the park.

As she came out of the toilet block, she noticed another man near their vehicle as she walked back.

“I might have startled him as he looked up. He was more of Asian appearance. My husband said he looked Balinese,” she said.

“He had on tracksuit-style clothing and had something in his hand. He was wearing glasses and had a little bit of facial hair.

“He seemed a bit odd to me. I felt uneasy.

“My husband had noticed that he had followed us to the park. He was very, very attentive because we had our little girl with us.

“He followed my husband into the toilet and stood beside him but didn’t go. He was sideways glancing, looking at my husband.”

Gregelyn said when the man came out of the toilets he had a stick in his hand and was waving it “strangely as if giving a signal to someone”.

Her husband saw an “older-style” red car drive off in the street, perhaps an older “squarish” Corolla.

Gregelyn said there were plenty of people around at the time.

She then saw the first man again.

“He looked at me again and I had that same strange feeling,” she said.

“We got into the car and left.”

Back on the Sunshine Coast, Guy tried to open one of his toolboxes but found the lock was difficult to open.

When he opened the box, he discovered his tools – including expensive power tools used in his plumbing business – had vanished.

Guy had checked the tools at the Bunya Mountains before the couple left, and had checked that the box was locked.

The stop in Blackbutt was their only break on their journey home.

The Pickering family is amazed the tools could have been taken from a locked toolbox in the middle of the day in the main street in Blackbutt with no one noticing.

“It wouldn’t have been an easy thing to do,” Gregelyn said.

“I am really gobsmacked that something like that could happen in such a small town.”

The couple has notified police about the theft and supplied them with serial numbers of the items stolen.

Gregelyn said CCTV cameras that perhaps could have captured some footage were apparently not working at the time.

She says the thieves may have been going from town to town, and may well not be Blackbutt residents.

And she suspects the three people she described were all involved in the theft.

“It was a very costly stop at Blackbutt. I was shocked because we had such a lovely time away,” she said.

“It was very disappointing but it won’t deter us from stopping there again, they’ve got lovely food. We’ll just be more attentive and watchful.”

The following items were amongst those stolen, all taken from the tool box on the driver’s side of the vehicle: