Running is more than just a hobby for Mick Marshall, it is a reason to get up in the morning.\u00a0<\/p>\n
So when the custom-made assistance gear he needs to run after a life-changing workplace fall in 2021 was stolen, along with his car, things were looking bleak.\u00a0<\/p>\n
But just six days later, police were able to return the assistance equipment to Mr Marshall. \u00a0<\/p>\n
“To be able to actually see it \u2014 I started to tear up a little bit,” he said.<\/p>\n
“That’s just how much that means to me to get that equipment back.”<\/p>\n
Police said community assistance led to the discovery of the running equipment, which includes a $10,000 electric hoist and a racing crutch valued at $400, on Wednesday.\u00a0<\/p>\n
The missing grey Jeep is yet to be found.\u00a0<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
Mick Marshall shed tears after police returned his stolen assistance equipment.\u00a0 (ABC News: Coco Veldkamp)<\/p>\n
Specialised equipment<\/p>\n
Mr Marshall suffers from complex regional pain syndrome, an injury that leaves him feeling like he is “in pain 24\/7”.\u00a0<\/p>\n
But that has not stopped him pounding the pavement with gusto, his custom-made gear helping him compete in numerous races including an ultra-marathon.<\/p>\n
The creation of the running assistance equipment is expensive and painful, taking two years to be moulded to his body.\u00a0<\/p>\n
“These need to be shifted and shaped to my legs, so to actually get them back and not go through that again has been heaven,” he said.<\/p>\n
Mick Marshall cannot run without his ankle\/foot orthotic, which was stolen when thieves took his car.\u00a0 (ABC News: Coco Veldkamp)<\/p>\n
Mr Marshall has won multiple world course records over the years.\u00a0<\/p>\n
“Through my injury almost five years ago, I’ve used running as a tool to get back to life and I did that after 10 surgeries and plenty of nuts and bolts in these legs,” he said.\u00a0<\/p>\n
But without his equipment, Mr Marshall said he was housebound and unable to train for an upcoming marathon.\u00a0<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
Mick Marshall says running is his life’s purpose. (Supplied: Mick Marshall)<\/p>\n
Ongoing investigation\u00a0<\/p>\n
Detective Acting Sergeant Andrew Griffin, who led the case, said it was a very rewarding experience to give Mr Marshall his equipment back.\u00a0<\/p>\n
“It’s very seldom that you get to return personal property such as what we’ve returned to Mr Marshall this morning, over a career of 25 years,” Mr Griffin said.\u00a0<\/p>\n
“We worked hard to progress the investigation quickly because property such as this is not worth anything to anyone else, but to Mick, it can’t be replaced.”<\/p>\n
He said the investigation remained ongoing, and that police hoped to also recover the stolen car and prosecute the offender.\u00a0<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
Mick Marshall with Andrew Griffin. (ABC News: Charlotte Wilkes)<\/p>\n
Mr Marshall said he was grateful he could return to running, and that he had a message for any would-be thieves.\u00a0<\/p>\n
“If you’re going to steal a car, please be respectful of what’s inside the vehicle,” he said.<\/p>\n
“If there’s something of no use to you, dump it at the corner street.<\/p>\n
“To me it wasn’t the car that was the most precious thing, it was the importance of what was in it.”<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Running is more than just a hobby for Mick Marshall, it is a reason to get up in…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":328711,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[9],"tags":[184199,184198,64,63,184197,48,184196,127350,1158,118559,2434,184200,85,70264,140649,112399],"class_list":{"0":"post-328710","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-sports","8":"tag-andrew-griffin","9":"tag-assistance-equipment","10":"tag-au","11":"tag-australia","12":"tag-ballarat-police","13":"tag-crime","14":"tag-endurance-athlete","15":"tag-mick-marshall","16":"tag-police","17":"tag-runner","18":"tag-running","19":"tag-specialised-equipment","20":"tag-sports","21":"tag-stolen","22":"tag-stolen-car","23":"tag-stolen-vehicle"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/328710","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=328710"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/328710\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/328711"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=328710"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=328710"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=328710"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}