Kayla and Aaron don’t tend to stray far from their home in Wallan, north of Melbourne. Their 13-year-old daughter, who has special needs, is their priority.
So when they finally had the opportunity to hit the open road in Aaron’s much-loved 2018 HiLux ute for the first time child-free, they were gutted after their vehicle was stolen at their first stop in Warrnambool.
A rare getaway: Kayla and Aaron, who asked that their surnames not be used, wanted to enjoy a plush accommodation for the first leg of their trip, selecting the Deep Blue Hotel and Hot Springs.
“We just wanted to get away and reconnect … we picked somewhere that we'd never been before as well, so we were excited about checking out Warrnambool and then Mount Gambier,” Kayla told the Brolga.
“Our first destination was supposed to be a bit more of a fancy part, staying at a nice hotel with an ocean view, a spa.”
Missing ute: Their HiLux was parked outside the front of the hotel on Worm Bay Road. On Monday morning, as Kayla went to breakfast, she noticed police gathered near where the ute was left.
“Normally, I wouldn't really take much notice, I would have just gone up to my room, but I noticed that they were walking towards [another] white HiLux,” she said.
“I walked out and saw that HiLux had a window broken. Next minute, because it was a white HiLux similar to ours, I'm thinking, ‘Well, where's our car?’ And I went to have a look, and it was gone.”
Police told Kayla they believed the theft happened around 6am Monday.
A frantic search: The holidaymakers found themselves stranded without a vehicle, about 300km from home.
“We were just hanging back at the hotel, I was absolutely distraught,” Kayla said. “The staff were absolutely amazing, they gave me a free spa treatment while Aaron was on the phone dealing with everything.
“We were told [by police] that they were then [allegedly] using our car to break into other cars on the main street in Warrnambool.”
Prized possession: Aaron’s ute has all the bells and whistles: spotlights, UHF radio, canopy, bullbar and fridge.
“This is his baby that he’s modified. I feel really sad for Aaron because I kind of made him take the HiLux because we had the fridge in the back, and I thought, well, we’re going on a trip, it's set up for it,” Kayla said.
A lucky break: Police updated Kayla and Aaron at 4:30pm Monday with a development - the ute had been found bogged on Staffords Road, east of town towards the Princes Highway, with the back windshield smashed out and firelighters that had been left in the back seat.
“I had said to Aaron, ‘We're never going to get this car back, there's no way. It’s going to be totalled, everything's going to be ripped out’.”
Ultimately, sunglasses, an Anderson plug and coins from Aaron’s collection were stolen. Items belonging to their daughter were littered with broken glass and had to be thrown away.
The ute was brought back into town, the original licence plates were located and put back on after allegedly being switched, and the pair were back on the road heading to Mount Gambier for another five nights.
Kindness of strangers: After a stressful 24 hours, Kayla thanked police, hotel staff, a local windscreen repair business - which offered their services for free - and the wider community, many of whom followed the drama on social media.
“We're hoping nothing else goes wrong and that we can continue on,” she said. “We're just so lucky it got found so quickly. If this had happened to us in Melbourne, we would have been told ‘bad luck’.”