Twechar van heist nets £20k haul

A van with a trailer stocked with £20,000 worth of gardening gear was stolen in a brazen daylight raid while the owner was making a five minute house call in Twechar.

The managing director of JBB Groundcare used his Facebook page to spread word about the theft, and his branded van was later recovered – but not the thousands of pounds worth of heavy duty gardening equipment.

The heist took place while JBB managing director James Brannan was making a house call in Twechar on Wednesday last week at 4.30pm.

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Numerous well-wishers responded to his Facebook appeal soon after he broke the news of the loss.

One Facebook reply read: “There’s something very odd about this. Things like that don’t happen in Twechar. The van and trailer must have been targeted.”

But another disagreed, commenting: “I’ve had a trailer, three bikes and the hubcaps off a car in Twechar. The trailer I think was outsiders, but I know it was Twechar boys that took the bikes.”

Another contributor, an arborist, offered to lend Mr Brannan equipment to help him keep his business going while he replaces the stolen gear.

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It isn’t known whether the equipment, which includes mowers and strimmers, was stolen to order, but some of it could find a market among unscrupulous “white van man” gardeners looking for a bargain.

Anyone with any information about the theft itself or the stolen equipment should contact police on 101.

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