Service station ram-raided

Police are still searching for thieves who ram-raided a service station at Nagambie on Wednesday last week, escaping with a cigarette cabinet valued between $10 000 and $15 000.

Seymour police Acting Sergeant Michelle Norris said the thieves used two vehicles to ram the United service station on High St at 4 am, with one of them, a 4WD Toyota LandCruiser, reversed into the service station sliding doors, allowing them to gain entry and steal the cabinet, which was three-quarters full.

Acting Sgt Norris said police later found the LandCruiser dumped a few kilometres away on Locksley Rd.

‘‘We are currently investigating the torched LandCruiser, but the other vehicle and the offenders are still at large,’’ she said.

United employee Esther Bethune said it was the third time this year thieves had targeted the service station.

‘‘On January 17 thieves jemmy-barred open the cigarette cabinet and then again on January 29 the same thing happened and now today,’’ Ms Bethune said.

‘‘We’d only had the new cabinet for about a month, but from the look of the CCTV footage, it seemed as if they knew what they were doing, so could possibly be customers.’’

CCTV vision of the incident has been handed to police and Ms Bethune said the clean-up of the damage would begin.

‘‘They’ve gone to desperate measures, they’ve made a big mess and caused a lot of damage, the clean-up process will be quite extensive,’’ she said.

Picking up the pieces: Police gather evidence from the Nagambie service station after a ram-raid last week.

Pictures: Ray Sizer Evidence destroyed: Police examine a burnt out Toyota LandCruiser used in the service station ram-raid.

Shattered: United service station employee Esther Bethune said this was the third time the service station had been targeted this year.