Local police are calling on residents to keep their doors and windows locked, including when they’re at home, in a bid to address the spike in car break-ins and thefts taking place in and around local shires.
With scores of locals from Lennox to Pottsville having been impacted by a series of crime spikes over the past four months, Detective Chief Inspector Matt Kehoe from Tweed-Byron police said the best thing locals could do to protect themselves was to always lock up.
‘A lot of these incidents seem to have a pattern, where the offender is entering the home to steal the car keys through an open door or window, and then stealing the car which they then use to undertake further offences,’ Inspector Kehoe told The Echo.
‘More than 90 per cent of the time, it’s a door or window that’s been left open, and they come in even if people are there.
‘They won’t go to the effort of smashing a door or forcing a window… It’ll all be done very quietly. That’s why we’re asking everyone to make sure that we lock our doors and windows all the time, whether you’re home or not.
Not like the ’70s/’80s
‘I know that we’d like things to go back to the way they were back in the ’70s or ’80s, when no one locked their cars or their houses, but unfortunately that’s not safe anymore.’
Inspector Kehoe said that police were seeing ‘spikes’ in certain offences which were clustered together by location.
‘It’s linked to offenders coming in from outside our district,’ he said.
‘They’re coming here from the Lismore or Ballina area, committing offences and then returning there. We know, because some of the vehicles have been recovered in those areas, and because there’s finger prints and DNA that matches with known offenders from those areas.
Affluent targets
‘Perhaps there’s a view among the offenders that there’s more affluent targets around here than what they can get around Lismore, Alstonville, Goonellabah… so they’re moving further afield.’
Among the locations being particularly affected were the suburbs in the northern part of the Byron Shire, including Ocean Shores, Brunswick Heads, New Brighton, and South Golden Beach.
In the 15 days to May 10, locals in these suburbs had reported three stolen motor vehicles, two instances of stealing from a motor vehicle and two instances of stealing property from a private residence.
Local social media pages have been awash with reports of car thefts and stealing incidents, including some calling for more action from police.
‘I have spoken to many people, and there are a lot of other cars being taken,’ said one local, whose car had recently been stolen.
‘The police, seem to have little interest and/or not the right tools and resources, so it’s down to us to help our friends and the community.’
Police shortages
Inspector Kehoe denied that police were disinterested, but acknowledged that the Tweed-Byron police district was ‘not immune’ to the police shortages being experienced state-wide.
‘It certainly has an impact on the staff who are here,’ he said. ‘It means that they’re purely responding to crime, rather than doing some of that follow-up work, such as targeting particular offending and hotspots.’
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