General News
22 July, 2025
Cruel blow for volunteers
ONE of Ararat’s most beloved service clubs copped a blow last week following a break-in at its McNeill Street premises.
While the damage has been patched up and offenders made off with only a modest haul, the passionate volunteers from Lions Club of Ararat have most certainly been rocked by the unfortunate incident.
“It’s a bit rough, isn’t it?” said club president Peter McNeill.
“It’s more annoying than anything else, and very disappointing I guess, that it would happen to a service club.”
As a volunteer organisation serving its local community, Ararat’s Lions club had not anticipated it would be considered a potential target for burglars so with no security monitoring in place, the alarm wasn’t raised until Mr McNeill dropped in to the clubhouse for some routine housekeeping.
“It happened sometime between our meeting on Wednesday night which would have finished up about quarter-to-seven, and then I went down there on Friday around midday to check if we needed anything extra for our Saturday barbecue,” he said.
“They actually pulled the corrugated iron part-way off the back wall and gained entry in there, and they got out through a roller-door there, they forced that open.
“There was two cash boxes, one was the Saturday barbecue float and the other was a backup float, roughly about $700 stolen, and the other thing they took was the EFTPOS machine, I don’t know what use that would have to them because they left the charger there.”
Mr McNeill confirmed Ararat police attended the scene Friday afternoon to gather evidence for an investigation.
“They took fingerprints from inside, coz they’d been in the fridge and we’ve got an upright freezer, they’d been in that and of course left it wide open, so there was water all over the floor, that was completely defrosted,” he said.
Having now gone through the stress of a break-in, the club will be installing security and surveillance equipment, which of course means spending money the volunteers would rather be putting into helping the local community.
Lions Club of Ararat’s Facebook page poignantly expressed member’s moods following the break-in.
“If only you had asked us if you were in need, we would have been more than happy to have helped you,” the club posted online.
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