KORUMBURRA man Kevin Smith recently celebrated his 90th birthday over a fun weekend of events with family and friends but got an unpleasant surprise on Sunday when he found his car had been stolen.
Kevin, known locally as Coog, enjoyed a night of celebrations on Friday two weeks ago at the Top Pub in Korumburra, with many of his friends made during his 70 years at the Leongatha and District Cricket Association, many of those years spent as President.
On the following Saturday night, 26 of Kevin’s family members joined him at Crown Casino in Melbourne for a leisurely dinner where he caught up with relatives, some who’d made the journey down from Queensland.
What had been a lovely weekend of celebrations turned into shock on Sunday morning when Kevin walked out his back door to find his car missing.
Kevin asked his son where it was, who replied that it was in the garage.
“I looked out there and it wasn’t out there at all,” Kevin said.
The nonagenarian and his son jumped into another car and started driving around to see if they might, on the off chance, spot the stolen car.
When they got to Tooradin, they saw a similar looking vehicle parked almost out of view, behind a service station.
Kevin checked it, and extraordinarily it was indeed his car and even better, it appeared to be undamaged.
He phoned the police and then waited for five hours for them to arrive.
The police took the car to the Cranbourne Police Station to have it fingerprinted, leaving Kevin without a car for over three weeks, not a great birthday present.
“It was pretty ordinary,” Kevin said, about the theft.
“There’s plenty of it around. You just don’t know who’s walking around here now.”
Kevin commented that he had been able to safely leave his keys in the car for the last 30 or 40 years, all without a hitch, until now.
“I won’t be doing that again,” he said.
Kevin gratefully received his car back from the police on Friday.
