Mum reveals toll Mount Louisa home invasion taking on her family as police comb through CCTV
Mum says victims of crime should have the right to defend themselves as police work to identify knife-wilding car thieves.
Townsville
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The victim of a home invasion in which a knife was held to her throat as her three terrified children looked on says she knew about Townsville’s reputation as a crime capital but never thought it would happen to her.
The working solo parent who only wished to be identified as Kristy said the overwhelmingly supportive response of the Townsville community was helping her cope with the nightmare ordeal in Mount Louisa in the early hours of Sunday morning.
This comes as police reveal they are combing through CCTV in a bid to identify three “young offenders”.
Kristy, recovering at home with her kids on Monday, said she had only just moved into the home on Puffer Court prior to the invasion, one of seven recent “hits” in the same quite suburban street in the last six months alone.
“I just can’t thank everybody enough for their support, I feel terrible for the residents who have had this (youth crime) held over them for so long and feel like they can’t do anything about it and feel like they are prisoners in their own city and don’t feel safe,” she said.
“I was warned about this, moving there, people were like, ‘why, it’s the crime capital’ and it’s like you don’t really think it will happen to you until it does and you can understand the local frustration 100 per cent.”
Katter’s Australian Party deputy leader has renewed his push for Castle Law in the wake of the incident, saying people needed to be able to protect themselves.
She admitted she knew little of KAP or its proposed law, other than comments made on social media.
“Obviously, I do think people have a right to defend themselves in their homes and it just seems crazy that they would be prosecuted for self-defence, which is just insane,” she said.
Kristy, who has been given as much time as she needs off work and supplied with a new work vehicle to replace the stolen Ford Everest, said the response to the ordeal had been significant in terms of the online response, media coverage and reactions from local politicians.
“People have reacted … obviously shocked or angry … I’ve had so many messages sent through by people who want to offer support, sympathy and offering assistance if I need it,” she said.
“The community has been outstanding … they’ve got a bit of a neighbourhood watch going, they’ve all offered to help if they can, they all offered to help police, giving them any footage that they had … they’ve all reached out to me to tell how sorry they are, it’s been incredible.”
Kristy said all three children witnessed three teenage criminals smashing their way into the house.
“My kids had all woken up due to all this noise and commotion and had all come out (into the living room), after curious, half terrified, and I just kept on screaming,” she said.
“Then they pulled out their knives and the bigger one of the three of them charged at me putting them in my face and the sort of ringleader put it up to the middle of my neck, had it sitting on my neck and demanded the keys (to the bronze Ford Everest).”
Kristy said she had no choice other to comply.
“They wanted the car, they weren’t going to say ‘no’, I just needed as quickly as I can to get them out of the house and away from my kids and the quickest way was to just give them the keys and go … I was terrified of course,” she said.
“They followed me into the kitchen with the knives pointed at me still and grabbed the keys,”
She said the violent youth offenders also stole her handbag for good measure.
“As soon as they left and got in the car and I heard the car start and go, I called police and they were here in seven minutes.”
Detective Sergeant Damien Smith said investigations were ongoing into the Sunday morning Mount Louisa incident, in which three offenders smashed a glass door and violently invaded a home containing a mother and her three children.
“It is extremely distressing that a young family was exposed to this,” Det Sgt Smith said.
“We are still collecting CCTV footage from that neighbourhood.”
Det Sgt Smith said the three individuals involved in the Mount Louidsa break in were “young offenders from Townsville” and the police believed certain people knew who they were.
“We are asking members of the community who have knowledge of this matter to come forward,” he said.
The violent Mount Louisa incident happened about 3.30am on Sunday morning.
On that same morning, members of the public reported a string of attempted invasion in the Mount Low and Bushland Grove area.
Brittany Carroll said between 4am and 5am someone tried to gain access to her home, snapping off the handle of her laundry door but being thwarted by a fridge the family keep pushed up against the doorway for security.
“For this reason we have a second fridge pushed against the laundry door,” Ms Carroll told the Townsville Bulletin.
“They’ve attempted to push the door open because our fridge was moved forward, however they gave up. If it wasn’t for the fridge they would’ve gotten into the house.”
Ms Carroll said the offender then went to their neighbour’s house across the road but “she chased them out” around 5am.
“This all happened right by my son’s bedroom window.”
Other Bushland Grove households reported the same activity on Sunday morning, with three different residents on Fremont St reporting invasion attempts to their neighbourhood Facebook group – one woman said her door was rattled, another had a fly screen cut, and a third person said they caught kids in the side of their yard.
“Scared them off but they also had a look out at the front and a getaway car parked two houses down. They took off in a dark mid sized SUV down Barnfield St. Stay safe,” the resident said.
If you have information for police, contact Policelink by providing information using the online suspicious activity form 24hrs per day at www.police.qld.gov.au/reporting.
Report crime information anonymously via Crime Stoppers. Call 1800 333 000 or report online at www.crimestoppersqld.com.au.
For the Mount Louisa home invasion, quote this reference number: QP2500809610
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