By Ava Cashmore
At around 4.17pm Monday 28 April, a university student’s car was stolen from Cardinia Road station.
19 year-old Tim Rickard left his car, a white Patrol, at Cardinia Road station while he took the train to university in Melbourne CBD.
After a day of study, he dragged his feet off the train just to witness a man opening the door of his car and pulling out of the parking lot.
“I vividly remember his arm as it was outstretched closing the door,” said Tim.
Tim chased the car down the street, putting a dent in the side door after kicking it in a last, desperate attempt to stop it from driving away.
He called the police immediately and they arrived at the station within five minutes.
Luckily for Tim, when he first bought his car, he put an Airtag in it, so he was able to track where his car was from his phone.
“Patrols get stolen a lot, and I was just scared… all of my brother’s mates have had their cars stolen, or had their car attempted to be stolen.”
Tim is a relatively new resident of the area, having moved from Menzies Creek to Officer in the last year.
“Compared to Menzies, it’s hectic down here,” said Tim.
From notifications sent by the Airtag, the police saw that the car had come to a stop in Narre Warren.
Tim kept monitoring the Airtag location, but as the hours passed, he got increasingly worried.
“[The Airtag] wouldn’t update forever, it was making me so sad to think they’d thrown the air tag out, they’d found it or something, or they’d crashed the car or something,” he said.
Finally, Tim decided to go to the last location the Airtag had updated, and in a nearby street he found his car discarded on the side of the road.
“He must have been in a hurry to leave once it happened, because when he dumped the car, he left all these tools behind.”
“I’m going to buy a full tracking kit, and get better locks, because he opened the car in like 30 seconds.”
Since the car was stolen, Tim has been walking to and from the station, refusing to risk his car again until he is satisfied with its security.
“Every time I leave it anywhere, I’ll be taking the fuse out, so they won’t be able to start [the car]”, said Tim.
This is Tim’s second year out of high school, and this traumatic experience has altered his perception of the world.
“As far as people go, I used to think, you know, everyone is a nice person, but now, no, people just suck.”
