THIEVES cleaned out a Kooroongarra property before daybreak on Tuesday, just a few kilometres from a farm that was ransacked in the weeks before Christmas.

Kellie McLoughlin estimated the thieves took more than $50,000 worth of tools and equipment and left lasting emotional pain.

The thieves struck while Mrs McLoughlin and her husband were in Toowoomba caring for a family member who had suffered a stroke on New Year’s Day.

“My husband is gutted,” Mrs McLoughlin said.

“He spent years and years building up all that equipment for someone to come in and help themselves.”

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It is believed several thieves entered the property about 4am on Tuesday.

They worked through the farm sheds, busting locks and cutting chains before loading everything onto a trailer.

The stolen items include two quad bikes, four chainsaws, toolboxes, a compressor, a mig welder, bench drills, angle grinder, spray tanks and fuel.

The hit rendered the farm inoperable until the gear is replaced.

“We can’t check on our cattle, because they stole our bikes,” Mrs McLoughlin said.

The family has a good idea of when the burglary occurred, in part because a neighbour heard strange noises, but they also suspect the thieves were rained on.

“We had an inch (of rain) that night and they got partially bogged … we would have loved to have seen them fully bogged,” she said.

The family considered itself security conscious and had locked up tight, knowing they would be gone for days.

They had even inquired about a surveillance system after their neighbours were burgled in the two weeks before Christmas.

“Everything was locked up, it is only thieves who could get in, not honest people,” Mrs McLoughlin said.

Detectives from the Dalby CIB are investigating, and anyone with information about the burglary is asked to phone Policelink on 131 444.

Originally published as Farm ransacked as family cared for sick relative, $50k stolen