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Thursday, 5 September, 2024
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Creature comforts donated Pakenham Upper’s possum population have received a boost, with volunteers from the Akoonah Park Men’s Shed donating 11 new habitat boxes to the Locky’s Legacy wildlife shelter. Locky’s Legacy owner Lyndel Charmers said the donated boxes would go far towards supporting possums transitioning from their care into the wild. “When we release the possums, it’s a big and wide world out there,” she said. Story page 4
Locky’s Legacy Animal Shelter owner Lyndel Chalmers received the donated nesting boxes from Akoonah Park Men’s Shed members Wayne Rose, Michael Scafocchia and Maury Hall. (Stewart Chambers: 428775)
Lock it or lose it LOCATIONS PAKENHAM, WARRAGUL, MOE
U2, 1 Stephenson Street PAKENHAM
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(03) 5922 2072
While loose cash, phones and sunglasses are among items commonly stolen from vehicles, a huge driver in thefts from cars across Cardinia is number plates. More than half of all the reports made to police across the Greater Dandenong, Casey and Cardinia areas regarding thefts from cars relate to stolen number plates. Offenders steal number plates to fix to other vehicles to aid in further criminality, avoiding detection when committing crimes such as petrol drive-offs, burglaries and drug trafficking.
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Low Dose CT, Digital X-ray, Comprehensive Ultrasound Dental X-ray, Dexa or Bone Densitometry, Echocardiogram
Cockatoo (20) and Emerald made the top five locations, their reports of thefts were much lower. Alarmingly, 57 per cent of vehicles in Cardinia that were targeted were unlocked or showed no sign of forced entry. That number was even higher across Casey (60 per cent) and slightly less in Dandenong (49 per cent). Police are reminding all residents that the simplest way to avoid falling victim is to lock your car doors, and never leave valuables in plain sight.
While parking vehicles in a garage would be the recommendation, not everyone has that luxury. Police also encourage residents to use antitheft screws on number plates as a way to deter thieves. “Anti-theft screws can be removed, but they take a lot longer than standard screws, taking a quick get-away off the cards for offenders,” Cardinia Local Area Commander Inspector Scott Brennan said. Continued page 2
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Cardinia continues to be a hotspot for theft from motor vehicle offences - which accounted for a quarter of all property crime - with Pakenham and Officer seeing the greatest number of incidents. Almost 40 per cent of reported thefts from vehicles relate to stolen number plates. According to police, in the 12 months to March 2024, Pakenham and Officer accounted for the greatest number of thefts from motor vehicles, with 360 and 164 reports made, respectively. While places including Beaconsfield (40),