ROBBED ON DAY DAD DIED
THE day Kim Wunsch’s dad died at the Toowoomba Hospice was hard enough without a callous thief ransacking her car.
Despite rushing to his beside, Ms Wunsch missed the chance to say her final goodbye when her dad John died the morning of November 27.
Emotionally drained, Ms Wunsch’s first thoughts were for her family but then she was told an opportunistic thief had broken into her locked car.
The man, whose face was covered by a bandanna and who remains on the run from police, stole her wallet after breaking into her late-model LandCruiser.
The same man is believed to be responsible for stealing the Toowoomba Hospice vehicle the same day, having been caught on security cameras scoping out the not-for-profit organisation.
“It’s a wallet but it’s the principle of it,” Ms Wunsch, 23, told The Chronicle.
Kim Wunsch’s dad John was diagnosed with terminal cancer in July this year.
When chemotherapy and radiation failed, doctors found the cancer had spread to his brain and lymph nodes, and he was given six months to live.
His condition deteriorated rapidly and he was admitted to the Toowoomba Hospice in Harristown where he spent his final 13 days surrounded by family.
Ms Wunsch said the care given to her dad at the hospice had helped her family and to be robbed in such a callous way had left her angry, but also disappointed.
The not-for-profit hospice provides free palliative care and its operations are largely funded through community donations.
“The worst thing is that at the hospice, they’re amazing people, they really are,” she said.
CCTV recorded the man with a bandanna covering his face walk through the car park looking at several cars between 10.30am and 11.20am on November 27.
He stole Ms Wunsch’s wallet after breaking into her car, and waited until a Toowoomba Hospice volunteer delivered a pallet of water inside the O’Quinn St charity before approaching the donated vehicle.
Finding the door unlocked and the keys inside, the man stole the car and was tracked turning left onto the Harristown street.
The white Mazda 3, with registration 415WHU, was tracked that same day to a fuel theft from a Grantham service station.
The car and the offender have yet to be found.
“People are going through hard times, we get that, but there’s no need to steal or put other people through this heartache,” Ms Wunsch said.
“I’m angry, but I’m more disappointed.
“I was grieving for dad and to have that happen, it was just heartbreaking.”
Ring Crime Stoppers on 1800 333 000.