Car without tow bar no barrier to school trailer theft
A North Shore primary school is without its “handy” trailer after a man was filmed stealing it from school grounds in the dead of night.
Chelsea Primary School notified its community on Facebook of the theft, sharing security footage of a mystery man driving into the school’s car park at 4.40am yesterday.
Parking his small car - that does not have a tow bar - the man lifts the trailer tongue and guides it into his car boot.
He then secures the trailer with what appears to be bungee cords, lowers the boot lid and drives off.
“Our trailer’s registration is Y664J,” the school wrote.
“It is labelled with Chelsea Primary School on the back. If you see it, or if you recognise the person in the video, please contact Chrissy Wills.”
Wills, the principal for Chelsea Primary, told the Herald the man was caught on CCTV arriving at the school an hour before he returned to take the trailer.
She was disappointed by the theft, given the school would now need to hire a trailer each time they wanted to use one.
Wills said the school uses the trailer surprisingly often, employing it for fundraising events or transporting equipment around town.
“It’s really, really handy,” she said.
“We’ve lent it out to other schools to use. So as silly as it sounds to say we have a school trailer, it’s actually really helpful.”
Wills said the alleged offender was not a member of the school community, but may live in the area or frequent the surrounding suburbs.
While the gate usually opens and closes automatically, she said cleaning staff had inadvertently left it open over the weekend.
“That doesn’t negate from the fact that you shouldn’t steal someone’s property,” Wills said.
Police confirmed they have received a report about the missing trailer and were assessing it.
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