Walking his two dogs close to Richmond’s Walmart late on Sunday afternoon, Graham Barrett’s attention was diverted to a weird bumping and scraping noise coming from the undergrowth.

It was the hottest day of the year so far and, as Barrett peered through the weeds that had grown next to an under-construction townhouse complex, he was perturbed by what he saw – a double-padlocked, medium-sized suitcase, with its contents moving around.