PSA – don't fill your car with sentimental and valuable items before shipping it across the country – and the car has to remain unlocked so various randoms can drive it.
https://www.abc.net.au/news/2026-04-19/why-police-not-investigating-thefts-cars-shipped-interstate-/106261780
14 Comments
I dunno.
If I was told the car would be unlocked the entire trip and that not to leave valuables in the car, it probably wouldn’t have left valuables in the car. Regardless of any declaration of responsibility I said with the company..
Sucks for them to have had this happened but it seems like a situation that was entirely preventable.
What are they looking at in the second image on the article? The place where the missing irreplaceable items would be?
I feel for them losing their stuff, but it’s a weird picture.
*”they say police were unable to investigate because it was unclear where the theft happened”*
LOL. I can speak from experience that it wouldn’t have mattered if they were moving from Melbourne to Ballarat. Police won’t be doing anything unless you can pinpoint where it happened, and even then, only if there’s cctv evidence of it happening.
Also: *”they paid extra to pack some things in the boot”* – more likely they were cost saving by doing this
Lesson learnt: Get contents insurance, they usually cover contents stolen out of motor vehicles.
> Dazmac tells customers not to put valuable items inside their car — and the couple said they signed a declaration relieving Dazmac of responsibility for any stolen goods
It does suck for them but they were told not to do it…. 🤔🤔🤔
Removals industry can be shady at times, but being told not to leave valuables, but then do ?????????
When I emigrated from the UK, our stuff came in to Perth and upon delivery my father left me to accept the shipment at our house in Perth. The stuff delivered, one of the guys hands me the paperwork and says “Sign here”.
I looked at the paperwork and said “Where is the Canoe ?”, they were like “What”. I said “1x 2 person Canoe, you cannot miss it, yellow in color”.
I wrote on the form Canoe not delivered, before signing off on the rest.
A couple of days later the canoe is delivered, with one of them saying “It was in the corner of our warehouse”, and I just muttered “Its not like it is a box of matches, not that hard to miss”.
They’re asking for changes but it still won’t make any difference if the police don’t know where the theft happened. They can’t investigate if they don’t know where to start.
Not to remove any blame from them, but I’m confused by “the couple said they signed a declaration relieving Dazmac of responsibility for any stolen goods” and the line “they paid extra to pack some things in the boot”.
So are they saying Dazmac are telling them not to do it, then pocketing money for them actually doing it?
Play silly games by being cheap, win silly costly prizes.
If the removalists tell you to not leave stuff in the car, and the car has to remain unlocked, but you still do it because you’d rather not pay an extra few hundreds or an extra grand or so to ship that stuff you filled the car with, it’s definitely on you.
And no, I am not victim blaming here, because yes the thief is a lowlife criminal, but this is like leaving the door to your home INTENTIONALLY (not even forgetting it accidentally) unlocked and wide open then crying victim
Why would anyone leave valuables in a car that’s being transported? First rule of handing cars over to third parties: remove all valuable shit from said car
Reads a bit like the script for season two of ‘the wire’ .
The editor’s note for the article is pretty funny.
Editor’s note: The journalist investigated this story after having been a victim of car shipping theft herself. She filed an incident report with police but was told there was not much that could be done, and the case was closed.
> company tells customer not to leave valuables in the car
> customer leaves valuables in the car anyway
> customer signs paperwork waiving liability for thefts
> customer is surprised when valuable things they shouldn’t have left in an unlocked car are stolen
> customer then goes to a national news service claiming to have been hard done by and no one will help them?
Have I got that right?
Bullshit. You charge $2000 to ship a car. Put a seal on the doors. Lock it send the keys separately. Have a dedicated person to handle them at each location. Like everything else australian its double the price for half the quality.
> Police in both WA and Victoria told them they could not investigate because it was unclear where exactly the theft occurred.
If only these states were part of some kind of federal system which also had a police force, we could call them, I don’t know, the Australian Federal Police?
>Anyone who has been a victim of this type of crime should report the matter to police as soon as possible,” police said in a statement.
So they can tell you nothing can be done because you can’t prove which state the crime was committed in? They could at least be honest and just tell you, you’re shit out of luck, and save everyone the report.
Side note: the old Volvos used to have a “service” key which could unlock the doors and start the car but not unlock the glove box or the boot which would be perfect for this.