Vandal strikes volunteer's car

Di Stanley | 17th June 2009

SELFLESS SES volunteer Tess Batts has been left devastated by the heartless vandals who savagely took an axe to her car.

SES hero Tess Batts with the wrecked shell of her car after vandals attacked it with an axe.

CQ News

SELFLESS SES volunteer Tess Batts was a real community hero in the January 2008 floods, saving lives and property on the Gemfields, but now she's the one left devastated by the heartless vandals who savagely took an axe to her car.

Tess came to Emerald on Friday to visit her son Robert, hospitalised with a suspected blood clot.

She was five kilometres out of town, heading back to Sapphire around 3.30pm, when the gearbox broke on her 1996 green Mitsubishi Magna sedan.

She was forced to park it on the side of the Capricorn Highway near its intersection with Marshall Road.

She returned on Saturday to a heartbreaking sight - every panel was pock-marked, every window of the vehicle had been smashed to smithereens, with what police suspect was a tomahawk or axe.

“My son was in hospital and that's why I was in town on a day off, and this happens,” said an angry Tess. “You think to yourself, 'why bother helping other people?'

“This really leaves a sour taste in your mouth, that somebody would do something so… malicious?

“My son had spent the previous week putting in a new engine for us,” she said.

In a double blow to Tess, who stood proudly as she was honoured by former Governor-General Michael Jeffrey last year as a “national treasure” for leading the flood fight on the Gemfields, the vehicle was uninsured.

“I am sickened to think that someone who can do that is living in our community,” said Anakie's Sergeant Brad Cowell.

“Here is a lady who has given up her free time for years to help others and she is repaid in this way by some mindless individual.

“I am sure they didn't give it a second thought that the owner of this car is a true Aussie battler who would give you her last dollar; and this happens.”