CCTV cameras caught the theft in the early hours of Friday morning. Photo: Weston Creek Community Association.
The Weston Creek Community Centre has certainly been put through the wringer.
Based in Parkinson Street in Weston, the centre purchased a Bosch washing machine and dryer earlier this year for homeless people in the area to use free of charge.
But staff turned up on Friday morning (13 December) to find the padlock to their back courtyard cut and both appliances gone, ripped from their metal brackets.
The centre was opened in 1978 and is managed by the Weston Creek Community Association (WCCA).
WCCA manager Yung Tran says CCTV footage shows the thief, clad in a mask and gloves, entering the property at around 3 am and leaving with both machines on a trolley about 15 minutes later.
“It must be an inside job because he came fully equipped – he knew we had sensor lights and CCTV,” he says.
The centre has offered its shower facilities to homeless people for several years now, but in February this year, it decided to take it further.
They purchased a 10 kg Bosch Series 8 washing machine and an 8 kg Bosch Series 8 heat-pump dryer.
“We also had the courtyard upgraded with protections to hide the machines, and had all the plumbing and electricity connected,” Yung says.
Yung Tran and Chris Steel after the washing machines were installed earlier this year. Photo: Weston Creek Community Association.
Homelessness charity Orange Sky currently offers mobile washing services in Canberra at least twice a week, with washing machines in the back of its van, dubbed ‘Frosty’. But it’s yet to extend its services to Weston Creek.
“We thought we’d provide this extra service because there’s nothing to offer in the area for those people.”
Since then, the same two to three people have come to use it at least twice a week.
“We get some regulars and some new ones from time to time. I just had a new gentleman come in the last two weeks who said he’d just become homeless.”
Yung said the centre’s staff have been left “extremely upset and disappointed” and baffled as to why someone would do such a thing.
“Financially, it’s not too bad, because everything is covered by insurance, but the big issue is that we’re now very hesitant to put machines back there. We’ve already upgraded our security, and I don’t know what else we can do to make sure it doesn’t happen again.”
A few options include buying vouchers from commercial laundromats and giving them out to homeless people, or approaching Orange Sky and asking to assist them financially in bringing their van to the community centre once a week or so.
“We were thinking of all these things before, but what made us come up with a solution to have the machines on our premises is that it’s instant – you can just walk in, and if the machines are free, you can pop your clothes in and come back in 15 minutes or so.”
Only the metal brackets were left. Photo: Yung Tran.
Yung has already received calls from people in the community, offering their old machines to the centre.
“That’s another of the solutions – just to get an old machine, you know, a solid workhorse, where it’s good and reliable so there’s no point stealing it.”
The association will make a decision in the new year.
Contact the Weston Creek Community Centre if you’d like to help.
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