Significant damage to freezers, fridges and cold rooms during a break-in on Saturday 5 August may delay the reopening of Canungra’s only supermarket.
The brazen attack took place at approximately 12noon on Saturday, with a group of 5-6 people in high visibility clothing breaking into the shipping containers and stealing the contents, before breaking into the supermarket itself and smashing all of the glass doors, pulling cold room doors off their tracks and smashing them.
The building owner said he received a phone call from an electrician on Saturday morning saying there were people on site, but he secured the supermarket before leaving.
Security footage shows a group of people breaking into the shipping container in the car park and removing items from it, believed to be shelving from the supermarket.
Some time between this event at approximately 12noon and the afternoon of Sunday 6 August, the supermarket building was broken into and every freezer and fridge door inside was completely smashed, with glass littering the floor. The doors were also pulled off the cold rooms and damaged.
“I have insurance – the people this really damages is the community,” said the building owner.
“It will certainly delay the reopening of the supermarket. We can see how much the community needs this from the number of people who come to the door while we have been undertaking repairs. Some of them are elderly, some on mobility scooters. We can see the town needs the supermarket to reopen.”
Asked how the break-in would affect the reopening of the supermarket, he said he was unsure.
“We have a loss assessor coming out this afternoon to look at it, to understand the damage.”
“The problem will be processing it through the insurance companies – they don’t do anything in a hurry. If there is a way we can find to push it through quicker, then we will try … but I would say it has probably put us back a month.”
The Canungra FoodWorks supermarket has been closed since a fire on 17 April 2023, leaving the town without a supermarket. Other businesses have filled the gap by stocking a variety of necessities, from fruit and vegetables to grocery lines.
At this time the break-in and the building fire are being investigated separately. The building fire is still under investigation with Detectives from Beaudesert CIB.
Anyone with information about the break-in on 5 August or the fire on 17 April should contact Queensland Police via Policelink on 131 444.
