General News
2 July, 2025
Community effort recovers trailer
PYRENEES Pétanque Club members are relieved following the return of their custom-built trailer after it was stolen from a locked shed at the Avoca Recreation Reserve.
The trailer and its contents went missing in the early hours of Thursday, May 22 along with many of the club’s assets inside the trailer including pétanque gear, several marquees, catering equipment, first aid kits and a barbecue.
Pyrenees Pétanque Club spokesperson Debbie Hicks was over the moon to share news of the trailer’s return.
“It’s a huge relief, financially and just the thought that we’ve got our stuff back,” said Ms Hicks.
“It was made especially (for the club), it’s a unique trailer made by a local tradesperson and we knew we just wouldn’t be able to get one the same and it’s worth a lot of money.”
She said the club had been facing the daunting prospect of replacing expensive items like the stolen marquees, which have now also been returned.
“We’d started to do our list, and it was going to be thousands of dollars so we’re very happy to have it all back,” Ms Hicks said.
The stolen trailer was recovered following good old-fashioned community cooperation with local police which saw the items recovered after a community tip-off.
“Certainly, they were getting ready to get rid of it because they’ve scratched off our name and things on the side, and some of our contents has gone but basically, the majority is back,” said Ms Hicks.
The tip-off came in after posts about the stolen trailer were circulated on Facebook and seen throughout the wider community.
“We’d posted on Facebook and some people had shared it, and somebody has seen that and noticed the trailer, they had it covered with one of our marquee sheets across the top but had left a little bit not quite long enough and the person sighted ‘sponsored by Pyrenees Shire’ across the bottom,” said Ms Hicks, describing the sequence of events.
“They noticed that and contacted police.”
Expressing gratitude for the return of the club’s gear, Ms Hicks was full of praise for the local community.
“Good community work isn’t it?” She said, “Local police followed it up very quickly and got it back to us quickly so it was a really good community police effort to get it all back.”
The club had been overwhelmed with the level of goodwill from locals after news broke about the stolen trailer and equipment, even having another sports club reach out about putting on a fundraiser to help replace items.
“It has turned into a good news story,” she said.
“We had lots of support from people in the local community, we had balls donated, people being very kind and wanting to help out.”