Nanaimo landscaper Eleanor Hickey had a difficult start to the new year and lost her garden tools in a break-in at her home on Kennedy Street.

The door to the shed where the single mother keeps the tools she uses as a freelance landscaper was opened on late New Years Day or early January 2nd. She was home at the time but heard nothing.

Items stolen include a leaf blower, two hedge trimmers, and a weed eater, valued at approximately $ 2,000 in total.

Hickey, a single mother with no insurance, said she was “pretty devastated” when she found out what had happened.

“I believe in humanity so much and it’s shocking when it happens to me,” said Hickey, a freelance landscaper for about 15 years whose company is called Papillawn Garden Services. “I had a few swear words.”

As difficult as the loss was, it turned into some beautiful things.

“I got a check and the people are really nice,” said Hickey, who plans to weed again today and use a leaf blower for some customers but is limited in what she can do.

She appeals to everyone who took her tools to bring them back.

Nanaimo RCMP Const. Gary O’Brien said that around the same time another shed on Kennedy Street was broken into and items including a lawn mower were taken away. “We think it’s probably the same person or one or two people working together.”

Such crimes are usually committed for the same reason, O’Brien said.

“They either convert it directly into drugs or sell it for a quick item on the street and then use that money to buy their drugs.”

jwbell@timescolonist.com

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Eleanor Hickey felt bad in her stomach when she found two days ago that the door of her storage shed was pried open.

That’s because every expensive tool Hickey owned and used in her freelance landscaping job has been stolen.

“I was just in shock,” said the resident of Nanaimo. “Just hurt and devastated.”

“It’s a terrible feeling.”

The incident happened sometime on late January 1 or early January 2 on Kennedy Street in Nanaimo.

Thieves got rid of all of the Hickey’s Stihl and Echo weed eaters, hedge trimmers, and brush cutters valued at over $ 2,000.

“It took a long time to save up to get really decent stuff,” she said.

In fact, every tool that needed fuel that Hickey couldn’t safely store in her house was in the backyard shed and was stolen. The single mother of a son with special needs was completely at a loss.

Hickey is uninsured and the theft left her feeling defeated less than five days after the New Year.

“It was my livelihood, it was all in,” she said. “I can’t do my job now until this stuff is replaced.”

Hickey’s home wasn’t the only home hit.

Const. Gary O’Brien, media spokesman for the Nanaimo RCMP, said there was another theft nearby around the same time.

“A shed was broken into and lots of lawn implements were taken,” said O’Brien.

According to the Nanaimo RCMP, a total of 14 thefts took place in the city on the night of Hickey’s break-in. Any stolen items are quickly sold on the street for drugs or cash, which is often used to purchase drugs.

Thefts have increased significantly over the past year and much of it can always be traced back to the drug market, ”said O’Brien.

For Hickey, theft isn’t a number. She says the tools are all she needs to feed herself and her son and that the person or those responsible have taken their livelihood away from them.

“I hope if someone has or sees it they’ll give it back to me,” she said.

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