Apparently it does.

Mr. Sandy Bathgate and his wife arrived home to their property near Shooters Hill, Oberon after visiting a friend’s place, and found their house had been invaded sometime around the July 15 and smashed furnishings with a sledge hammer.

Mr. Bathgate said he and his wife arrived home to find that their back door was open and their house ravaged.

In every room of their 1940 fibro cottage, there was extensive damage done. The fridge, freezer and washing machine in the laundry had been taken to with the sledgehammer. Kitchen benches had been smashed, in addition to every cupboard door. Oddly, even the fridge door had been jammed open with a piece of furniture, ensuring that the food it held would be spoiled.

Many other household items and furniture had also been beaten or destroyed, such as the dining room table, bed frames, wardrobes, and even the wash basin in the bathroom and a bottle collection. A television, a camera and a printer were all broken, but nothing was stolen.

“In one respect, we were fortunate that everything could have been broken and wasn’t,” Mr Bathgate said.

Even an old desk that Mr Bathgate had had since he was a child was completely destroyed, and an historic framed land title deed of the property was removed from the wall and smashed.

“Some things had sentimental value and are irreplaceable,” he said.

The perpetrator also went an estimated 100 metres away from the house to cut the pipeline from the water tanks to the house, and 22,000 litres of water was lost.

Mr Bathgate said he has had a long association with Oberon and this event has changed the way he feels about the district.

“This criminal act of lowlife thuggery is something our community has never experienced before, and therefore not only is it alarming and regrettable personally, but also it brings a new and disturbing dimension to the lives of all of us here in the Oberon district,” he said.