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AN Omagh mother has been left ‘devastated’ after £500 worth of oil was stolen from her tank in the dead of night.
Three weeks ago, Jill McCann received an order of oil substantial enough to last her family, including two children with disabilities, until the summer months just before fuel prices began to skyrocket.
But on Monday of this week, the 47-year-old’s high spirits came crashing down when she realised that her oil tank simply wasn’t ‘not working’ – it had been bled completely dry by thieves.
Heartbroken
Speaking to the Ulster Herald, a heartbroken Jill said that she has been ‘crying her eyes out’ since the theft, which, she believes, was by people who know the local area.
“In the early hours of Sunday morning, at around 3 o’clock, I heard banging going on in my backyard,” Jill recounted.
“But because I have two dogs and I didn’t hear them barking, I thought nothing of it. I thought they were just chasing each other around.
“Now I realise that’s when the theft took place. And whoever did it knew to expect the dogs; they must have fed them to keep them quiet.”
Suspecting something was wrong with her oil tank, Jill added, “I put on the heating on Sunday morning and when I came back to the house later, it just was freezing and my clothes on the radiators were still soaking.
“I thought, ‘jeez, why isn’t my heating working?’
“So I went out to my oil tank on Monday morning first thing to check it, and I realised that there wasn’t a drop left in my tank. It had bled dry.”
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Describing the situation as ‘truly horrible’, Jill said that she ‘hopes to God that nobody else has to go through it’.
“I’m a single parent with two disabled children at home, so you can imagine how hard this has been to come to terms with,” she said.
“That was my money for the oil, which I was hoping would take me to the end of the summer at least before I even have to top up again.
“Now we’ve been forced to live off a small jar of oil to keep us going.”
‘Cut back’
Sadly Jill now has to ‘cut back’ on all of her daily expenses, including her grocery shopping, until she can afford to purchase a new order of oil.
“I have a disabled child who is incontinent, and their bed clothes and other items have to be washed constantly,” Jill said. “We can only put our heating on now when I’m drying the clothes.
“I just have been crying since it happened,” she added. “I did report it to the police, but without video footage of the crime or witnesses, there’s nothing that they can do. It’s all just very frustrating.”
Jill has provided us at the Ulster Herald with her PayPal email address for anyone willing to help put some money towards her future oil bill.
“It’s not often I take help, but in circumstances like this it is hard for me to cope as a single parent with children,” she said.
“I’m sure there are many people in my situation as well struggling to pay for their oil, but I would appreciate any donations at all.”
Following recent reports of oil thefts across the district, police in Omagh and Fermanagh have issued a warning to local residents to ‘stay vigilant’. You can report any suspicious vehicles or activity in your area to police immediately via 101 or 999 if the crime is in progress.
If you would like to help Jill pay for a new delivery of oil, please send your donations to her PayPal account: jillmccann.18@gmail.com
