Calendar An icon of a desk calendar. Cancel An icon of a circle with a diagonal line across. Caret An icon of a block arrow pointing to the right. Email An icon of a paper envelope. Facebook An icon of the Facebook "f" mark. Google An icon of the Google "G" mark. Linked In An icon of the Linked In "in" mark. Logout An icon representing logout. Profile An icon that resembles human head and shoulders. Telephone An icon of a traditional telephone receiver. Tick An icon of a tick mark. Is Public An icon of a human eye and eyelashes. Is Not Public An icon of a human eye and eyelashes with a diagonal line through it. Pause Icon A two-lined pause icon for stopping interactions. Quote Mark A opening quote mark. Quote Mark A closing quote mark. Arrow An icon of an arrow. Folder An icon of a paper folder. Breaking An icon of an exclamation mark on a circular background. Camera An icon of a digital camera. Caret An icon of a caret arrow. Clock An icon of a clock face. Close An icon of the an X shape. Close Icon An icon used to represent where to interact to collapse or dismiss a component Comment An icon of a speech bubble. Comments An icon of a speech bubble, denoting user comments. Comments An icon of a speech bubble, denoting user comments. Ellipsis An icon of 3 horizontal dots. Envelope An icon of a paper envelope. Facebook An icon of a facebook f logo. Camera An icon of a digital camera. Home An icon of a house. Instagram An icon of the Instagram logo. LinkedIn An icon of the LinkedIn logo. Magnifying Glass An icon of a magnifying glass. Search Icon A magnifying glass icon that is used to represent the function of searching. Menu An icon of 3 horizontal lines. Hamburger Menu Icon An icon used to represent a collapsed menu. Next An icon of an arrow pointing to the right. Notice An explanation mark centred inside a circle. Previous An icon of an arrow pointing to the left. Rating An icon of a star. Tag An icon of a tag. Twitter An icon of the Twitter logo. Video Camera An icon of a video camera shape. Speech Bubble Icon A icon displaying a speech bubble WhatsApp An icon of the WhatsApp logo. Information An icon of an information logo. Plus A mathematical 'plus' symbol. Duration An icon indicating Time. Success Tick An icon of a green tick. Success Tick Timeout An icon of a greyed out success tick. Loading Spinner An icon of a loading spinner. Facebook Messenger An icon of the facebook messenger app logo. Facebook An icon of a facebook f logo. Facebook Messenger An icon of the Twitter app logo. LinkedIn An icon of the LinkedIn logo. WhatsApp Messenger An icon of the Whatsapp messenger app logo. Email An icon of an mail envelope. Copy link A decentered black square over a white square.

Aberdeenshire community figureheads hit out at theft of life-saving machine

Councillor Paul Johnston
Councillor Paul Johnston

Community figureheads have criticised the thieves who made off with a life-saving machine installed in the centre of an Aberdeenshire village.

The public access defibrillator (PAD) was taken from Oldmeldrum Market Square between Wednesday and Thursday last week having only been put in place in March.

It was one of a number of PADs recently installed across Aberdeenshire communities to allow locals to better deal with cardiac arrests.

The machine was partly funded by the Oldmeldrum, Bourtie and Daviot Community Council.

Mid-Formartine councillor, Paul Johnston, hit out at the thieves – labelling the act “crass, utter stupidity”.

He said: “This is a completely senseless act as it is of no value to anyone other than as a piece of life saving equipment.

“It needs to be kept in its recharging box, which is attached to the wall near Oldmeldrum Square. It’s useless otherwise.

“The community raised thousands of pounds for the provision of defibrillators to save lives. This is a huge slap in the face for them and we are all rightly angry at the crass, utter stupidity of the theft.

“If in an emergency this was needed, valuable time would be lost. This is an incredibly serious act.

“I strongly urge everyone who might have information or knows of its whereabouts to help in the return of the device.”

Secretary of the community council, Kaye Cowie, said: “We’re just kind of shocked. It’s a lot of money.

“If it is just kids being silly then we might find it somewhere – we’ve had a good look already. People are very angry that it’s been stolen.”

A police spokeswoman last night confirmed they were investigating the theft.