A second of monkey enterprise has landed a person with a 12 months of group service for stealing a gorilla statue from a retirement village.
Matthew Newbould final month pleaded responsible to stealing the 20kg backyard decoration named ‘Garry’ from a retirement village at St Helena in Melbourne’s north-east on 6 June.
He was additionally disqualified from driving on the time after dropping his licence in July 2023.
Justice of the Peace Michael Wighton convicted Newbould for theft and driving disqualified, sentencing him to 100 hours of unpaid group work over 12 months.
Wighton famous Newbould had already served jail time over extra critical costs, and had beforehand breached a court docket order.
“You are still getting your self into bother for fairly foolish issues,” Wighton stated.
“I imply actually, actually silly choice making, like stealing issues just like the gorilla, land you in fairly critical bother.”
‘LOL I stole a gorilla’
Newbould had noticed Garry the gorilla statue on the retirement village whereas shopping for a chest of drawers with a buddy.
He then grabbed the statue and loaded it onto a ute employed from Bunnings. An onlooker known as police after recognizing Garry perched within the car’s tray.
Victoria Police’s Airwing helped find the 1.5m statue in a yard.
Newbould was arrested on 5 July and a search of his telephone revealed textual content messages to buddies, together with one which stated: “LOL I stole a gorilla, so what?”
Police returned the 20kg statue to the retirement village in July. Supply: Equipped / SUPPLIED/PR IMAGE
Wighton thought-about Newbould’s psychological well being points and substance abuse struggles in his choice, and opted to not prolong the offender’s driving ban, which had virtually three years remaining.
“In case you breach the order by way of additional offending or by way of not complying with the order, then you definitely may be returned to court docket and re-sentenced,” the Justice of the Peace stated.
In early July, police returned Garry the gorilla to the Leith Park retirement village the place he has lived peacefully ever since.
