The Victorian business of a man who plunged to his death from a shipping container while allegedly looking for drugs was broken into three times in the days after his death – but not one of the crimes were reported to police.

The Herald Sun can reveal within hours of Troy Kellett’s fatal fall in Adelaide, offenders broke into his Altona North transport company and gained access to seven shipping containers stored on the site.

Despite security seals being broken and doors opened on each of the containers brimming with goods, nothing is believed to have been stolen.

“Only one door on each of the containers was opened, which suggests they were looking for a container full of something,” an ex-employee said.

“Normally you would open both doors and shine a torch down each side, if you were trying to find something smaller within the container. Why go to all that trouble and not steal anything inside. It appears to me they were looking for something specific and would be able to identify it straight away.”

He added: “Everyone was in shock about Troy’s death, which we learned about just the day before. We were walking around like zombies and didn’t put two and two together. And as nothing was stolen, we assumed it was just kids and why bother the police about it.”

But the next day, workers discovered thieves had forced entry into the business office and stolen several computers and hard drives.

It is not known if the offenders wanted something they believed was on the drives or were trying to delete footage of their break-in the day before.

The Chambers Rd site has more than a dozen CCTV cameras.

Keys to all the trucks were also missing from a wooden hook board and the spares were gone from an office upstairs.

When Troy’s dad John Kellett was called and informed of both incidents, he ordered the drivers pack up and go home.

“It was pretty amateurish – they didn’t just take the computers, they took the monitors and mice and everything. And not all the hard drives were taken. So if they didn’t get what they wanted all they gained was a hernia,” a source said.

“We later found a hole cut in the wire perimeter fence and computer cables caught in it where they had come and gone.”

The Herald Sun tried to contact John Kellett for comment.

There is no suggestion he was aware of the drug shipment.

He added: “We also found the keys to all the trucks in a plastic bag under a table in the corner of the upstairs office. It was like they had put it there to remember where it was, but then forgot about it.”

The former worker said it was assumed John Kellett would attend the property and call police. But the Herald Sun has confirmed no call, or report to any police station, was made.

Before workers left, Troy’s bus, stored on site while he transformed it into a mobile home to travel around Australia, was also discovered broken into.

“It was trashed, everything was opened and everything turned upside down. It was a real mess” the ex-worker said.

Half a pound of marijuana allegedly found in a secret compartment on the bus by another worker has also gone missing.

Footage from Kellett Australia’s vast security cameras would have been deleted after four days, if not backed up on another memory device.

Troy Kellett, 43, died at 12.30am on July 9, when he slipped and fell while trying to scale shipping containers stacked six-high with a grappling hook and rope.

The Herald Sun revealed earlier this month how South Australia’s Serious and Organised Crime Branch detectives, along with heavily armed officers from its tactical response unit, witnessed the fall as they were watching the site after a tip off about drugs – believed to be cocaine – being stored at the Outer Harbor cargo depot.

It is believed SA Police did not inform Australian Federal Police of the covert operation and have not requested any help from Victoria Police, other than to notify family members of his death.

The two charged men – Renalnto Bylo, 33, and Dasmir Kulafovski, 47 – appeared at Port Adelaide Magistrates Court on August 7.

Lawyers for Mr Bylo indicated he would not fight the six firearm charges and an offence of unlawfully being on premises. Defence Counsel for Mr Kulafovski, however, said he would contest his charges of unlawfully being on premises and giving false details to police.

The Herald Sun revealed Troy Kellett received $7.94m in his bank account on the Friday before his death, from the sale of his business property and land.

He was due another $8m on the same day for the sale of trucks and other assets but phoned in sick and told the buyer Norman Carriers he couldn’t sign the paperwork as he was “on the road”.

“He was a multi-millionaire on Friday and dead on Sunday,” his brother Corey told this newspaper.

Originally published as Transport company boss’ office ‘trashed’ after his death