Bundaberg Landcare president calls out youth crime after break-in

Bundaberg Landcare president Mike Johnson is calling for intervention programs for children involved in crime after $6000 worth of gear was stolen.

Bundaberg Landcare president Mike Johnson is fed up with politicians bickering about what to do to address youth crime and just wants to see something done.

The long-time environmental advocate believes kids are behind a recent heist which involved the theft of about $6000 worth of gear at the group’s Killer St facility.

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sometime between Saturday and Monday, the culprits broke in to the Landcare nursery and its buildings through the Tom Quinn Centre which it sits adjacent to, Mr Johnson said.

They used a large steel bar to lever the door on a storage container, taking a $1000 chainsaw, a $1000 whipper snipper, power tools, batteries and boxes of screws and fittings.

The offenders then ripped out the hard drive containing the CCTV footage that would have identified them.

Keys to the office were also stolen and used to access the office where two laptops were removed.

They even used the nursery’s own bolt cutters against them in order to get their hands on more items.

Some items were found stashed in bushes, but the majority of the stolen items could not be recovered.

Mr Johnson said the loss was a lot for a community group to handle.

“Everybody is very upset,” he said.

“We‘ve been going nearly 30 years and we’d like to say to people, if they say what can we do, ‘just support us’, that’s all.

“We don‘t stop with anything, we roll on, we don’t put up with anything so we’ve checked and got everything up to speed and we can actually open tomorrow.”

Mike Johnson from Landcare says young offenders need intervention.

Mr Johnson said CCTV had previously captured children as young as nine involved in break-ins at the centre and an 11-year-old was videoed sneaking in to steal a sledgehammer.

“This goes to the bigger picture, I believe that there is a problem with juvenile crime,” he said.

Mr Johnson is calling on governments to put their differences aside and work on tackling the problem, which he believes is escalating.

“I know a woman got assaulted on the golf course at Bargara, we've had break-ins, I think (the nearby) Diggers (football grounds) have had eight break-ins in their lifetime, the Salvos got burnt, they got broken into again at Christmas,” he said.

“To me there's a problem of course with poverty, but we all didn’t get raised in wonderful homes and it doesn’t mean you go out and do terrible things to other people either.”

Mr Johnson said he wanted to see intervention programs rolled out as he believed there was a 90 per cent success rate if parents and children were involved in the process. It’s a discussion he says needs to be had.

“I hate politicians blaming other political parties,” he said.

Mike Johnson shows the metal bar thieves used to break in to the Landcare nursery.

“Stop doing that and behave like Europe and all get on the same page and solve these issues.

“There's got to be repercussions.”

Some of those repercussions, according to Mr Johnson, should be boot camp type environments and hard work picking up rubbish on the land.

He’d also like to see citizens paid to take shifts on neighbourhood watch duties.

“There‘s got to be some sort of a punishment as long as you know that you’ve done something wrong and it’s done properly,” Mr Johnson said.

“You've got to get it early, it’s terrible what’s happening in the state.

“I‘m for social justice, but we cannot let kids be animals.”

Mr Johnson reminded residents, businesses and community groups to be vigilant.

He recommended getting insurance, which he did not have, hiding keys and valuables, ensuring locks and chains could not be cut and making sure serial numbers and records were kept.

“It‘s a wake-up call and I think it’s just a wake up call to everyone these days,” Mr Johnson said.

Mr Johnson will be reporting the incident to police.