Tony The Tea-leaf Has Been A Very Busy Boy

Newcastle Herald

Friday July 30, 2004

Greg Ray

LET me know if you see Tony.

Or better yet, tell the anti-theft squad.

You see, Tony is a tea-leaf, a thief. He's a burglar and a seller of stolen goods.

I've never met Tony, but I've met lots of people who have. He's apparently biggish, with a bit of a beer gut. He affects a sort of "country" manner and he usually spins a yarn about how he comes from a property up the valley. Lately, I'm told, he's been driving a white utility, which must come in handy in his line of business.

I first heard of Tony a few months ago when an old friend of mine was robbed. Apparently a bloke had turned up at my friend's place and said his name was Tony.

He talked about his property in the valley and said he was looking for odd jobs, like cleaning up yards. He claimed he'd been sent by a former homecare nurse who'd once looked after this friend of mine. My friend, you see, is elderly and housebound which, these days, is much the same as having "rob me" written on your forehead in big letters.

My friend told Tony he had no jobs to give nor money to pay.

Shortly after this visit my friend found himself missing a very large amount of furniture, small ornaments, coins, medals, photos, books, tools and other material accumulated over a few generations of his family's life.

By a weird coincidence, I happened to be passing through a shop that deals in second-hand goods and noticed my friend's name on some material being prepared for sale. I mentioned to the shopkeeper that this stuff had been pinched and asked him where he got it.

He'd bought it, he told me, from a bloke called Tony. (Same surname too, incidentally.) Tony had given his address as a property up the valley and he had said that this interesting historical material had come from his sister's shed.

Naturally the shopkeeper and I reported the matter to the police who quickly found that Tony had been a very busy boy, offering all sorts of stuff pinched from my friend to pawnshops and second-hand dealers all over the place.

I spoke to several of the dealers. Most were very up-front and some admitted unwittingly buying some of the stolen goods. A small minority were, I felt, a bit cagey about whether they'd seen Tony.

At one shop I was told that Tony was very well known indeed in some circles and had a certain reputation that had led to some antique and second-hand dealers refusing to buy things from him.

Sad to say, so far the police have been unable interview Tony.

One policeman told me that Tony had been pulled over in his car and invited to discuss the issue of my friend's stolen goods. He reportedly "declined to be interviewed" which, oddly enough, appears to have been the end of the matter.

There are shopkeepers willing to make statements and who can visually identify Tony. One can even provide an address where a great deal of the stolen material appears to have been offered for sale at a series of weekend garage sales. That's if anybody ever asks him.

As things stand, my friend has no idea where most of his goods have gone. In addition to his existing health problems he is now faced with a terrible sense of fear and insecurity. He is having trouble sleeping because he is so worried about Tony or his mates coming back and maybe knocking him on the head for his few remaining belongings.

So if you read this, Tony, I hope you feel proud of yourself. You have made a poor sick old man very frightened and unhappy, not that I imagine you care.

I guess it's unlikely that Tony will read this little column. He probably doesn't have a lot of time for reading, what with ripping people off and flogging their gear all over the town.

So if a big bloke called Tony turns up out of the blue and offers to clean up your yard, here's my advice: keep him talking, call the police and try to catch him. Otherwise fit deadlocks and alarms as quickly as you can.

Because when Tony cleans up, he really cleans up.

© 2004 Newcastle Herald

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