A Mackay man has made a unique offer to the thieves who stole his car — have the keys, but return valuable work access cards.
Jason Marshall's ordeal started last week when, on his way home from work at the Dalrymple coal terminal to Bucasia, his car broke down on the Bruce Highway south of Mackay.
He left the car off the highway 20 metres down Baronga Drive and went home thinking he would sort the car out later.
At home he noticed his work clearance cards were missing, but when he returned to the scene, the car was gone.
"It was a little bit of a shock, to be honest," he said.
After reporting the theft to police, and calling around the region's wreckers, Mr Marshall hit social media with his interesting offer.
"I was hoping it would get the attention of some different people, but I'm not holding my breath," he said.
"The car doesn't mean a great deal to me, but it had a couple of pretty important cards — my site access and my maritime safety card, which is pretty expensive to replace.
"If I could get the cards back, I'd quite happily hand over the keys."
Mr Marshall works at the Mackay Port and needs both cards to access the site.
He said replacing the car was not an issue; it was the bureaucracy of replacing the cards that which would take time and money.
"I'm going to have to go through police clearances, a pretty long waiting list, and then it's about $450 to replace the maritime safety card," he said.
"It's a bit of a hassle and an unwanted cost."
Mr Marshall said the theft surprised him because the car was worth so little.
"I think the car's no good, but they've obviously seen something they wanted, so if they can make something of it, then fair play.
"If I was selling it, I would only be asking $400 so they went through a lot of trouble for that."
It would cost more than the car was worth to fix after the breakdown, he said.
"They obviously wanted it more than I did."
