Residents in the northern Sydney suburb of Mona Vale have been left frustrated after they were targeted in a brazen marriage equality postal form robbery.
Up to 40 of the envelopes were found dumped in a nearby rubbish bin on Friday morning, by a local who noticed the letters addressed to people in surrounding homes.
The Seabeach Avenue apartment resident discovered the stolen envelopes, with their forms and return envelopes missing, inside a large plastic bag that had been carelessly tossed into a red council bin.
Also inside the bag were more than 40 items of personal mail, which had all been torn in half.
The 66-year-old man, who remains anonymous, said the thief ‘must have just raided all these letter boxes,’ the Sydney Morning Herald reports.
‘Someone’s come along, put their hand in and grabbed what they could…It doesn’t seem like they were looking for credit cards or anything like that because all the personal mail has been ripped in half,’ he said.
‘My deduction is, all they wanted was the marriage equality survey.’
He accused the survey system of being corrupt and labelled it an ‘absolute joke’.
Forms were stolen from neighbouring streets near Mona Vale Beach and Basin Beach, including Heath Street, Darley Street, Golf Avenue, Seabeach Avenue, Bassett Street and Surfview Road.
The man alerted his neighbour, Toby, who described feeling ‘frustrated’ and ‘pissed off’ that his form had been taken.
The 33-year-old took to Facebook on Friday to vent his irritation, saying he hoped the thief would be using the stolen forms to vote yes.
He accompanied a photo of his ripped up and crumpled mail saying: ‘To the rubbish human who stole my mail, postal vote included, along with 39 other residents of Seabeach Ave, Bassett St and Surfview Rd. YOU BETTER HAVE VOTED ‘YES’.
He also sarcastically suggested the robber leave a less obvious trail in future.
‘Maybe next time don’t dump the evidence back in our bin?,’ he wrote.