A Renfrewshire village was left “gobsmacked” and “sickened” after a 21-foot container housing items for its new play park was stolen.
The massive container is believed to have been craned onto a truck and driven away from its temporary siting near Lochwinnoch Community Annexe.
It had been housed there to store tools and the new equipment for the village play park.
Contractors who have been working on the refurbishment in recent weeks locked the container at 3.30pm on Thursday but returned to find it had vanished at 8.30am the following morning.
The astonishing theft has left the community stunned and angered as it has thrown its £150,000 park refurbishment into disarray.
Pam Shaw is the development officer for Lochwinnoch Community Development Trust which has fundraised for the upgrades to the park for two years.
“We are gobsmacked,” she told the Paisley Daily Express.
“We just don’t understand it. The container is 21ft long and has a portaloo inside it, all the park equipment, hand tools and power tools.
“They would have had to crane it on to a lorry to move it.
“The really annoying thing is we were only about one week away from having the play park done.
“Some of the equipment, such as the ropes for the climbing frame, the top of the roundabout, the swings, all these things were in the container.
“The real problem is that some of the stuff has come from Germany and so will take weeks to arrive.
“We need to do a complete reccy to confirm exactly what is missing and they will have to be reordered."
Pam added: “The insurance will likely cover it, but it is sickening.
“We raised this money through community fundraisers in partnership with Renfrewshire Council.
“It makes me sick to think someone would do this.”
The project to refurbish the play park has been two years in the making, with the community raising £19,000 through events and grant applications,with Renfrewshire Council pledging cash through its parks and green spaces fund.
The trust and Renfrewshire police are now urging anyone who may have seen people move the container to get in touch.
Pam said the robbery could have been committed in plain sight.
She added: “It’s a really popular place for people to walk their dogs and the cycle path runs right along that area, so I think someone must have seen something between 3.30pm on Thursday and 8.30am on Friday, even if it didn’t click what they were doing at the time.
“So much equipment has been coming and going at the park, so no one would have thought anything of it if they had have seen it being moved.”
Anyone who did see the container being moved or people acting suspiciously around the time of the theft are being urged to contact police.
A Police Scotland spokesperson said: “On the morning of Friday, October 14, police received a report of the theft of a container from the Lochlip Road area of Lochwinnoch.
“Enquiries are at an early stage.”
A spokesperson for Renfrewshire Council, which is overseeing the installation of the play park added: “We would ask that anyone with information regarding the theft of this container to contact Police Scotland.
“The refurbishment of the play park is almost complete, with the main pieces of play equipment installed, and we will liaise with our contractor on the remaining works to ensure it can still open for the local community in the near future.”
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