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Bidding to be a bikie
From:
July 24, 2006
IT is a Sydney tour with a difference that is guaranteed to leave some morbidly
fascinated and others simply disgusted.
The Comanchero Motorcycle Club is auctioning off a day in the life of a bikie.
But it is also promoting the chance to visit the scene of one of Australia's
bloodiest bikie wars - the Milperra Massacre - with the club that lost four
members at the Viking Tavern on Father's Day in 1984.
Also killed were two men from rival gang the Bandidos and teenager Leanne
Walters, an innocent bystander shot in the face with a .357 Magnum.
The club offers the possibility of a visit to the massacre scene as part of the
sales pitch for the eBay auction, which has a reserve of $2000.
"If someone wants to do that - a ghoul's tour - then, yeah, that's OK,"
spokesman Charlie Graham said.
"What happened at Milperra is still a mystery to people, still to this day."
While yet to attract a single bid as of yesterday, the club has guaranteed 50
per cent of the final bid will be donated to the cystic fibrosis unit at The
Children's Hospital at Westmead.
"We could've done this as a business for ourselves but one of our members'
10-year-old daughter, Sarah, has cystic fibrosis and we thought, 'Why not give
half to a charity?'," Mr Graham said.
"Maybe people are going to say this is a cover for something but we were touched
by what we saw with Sarah and what she needed so we thought we could also raise
money to help those like her."
The highest bidder will not be allowed near the Comanchero clubhouse but Mr
Graham said they would spend eight hours riding with three to four club members,
visiting their haunts.
"This will be a magical mystery tour - who knows where we'll end up?" he said.
"If you want you could play a prank on a friend with us where you send us to
their house and, when they answer, we tell them 'you owe (the highest bidder)
$20' and then you jump out from behind us. You know, just little pranks like
that. We're all for s**t-stirring, as long as no one gets hurt.
"It's for a good cause. OK, we do get something out of it but if someone puts in
a decent price, we'll make a show of it."
