McDowall shops vandalised by Northside Gang

A COFFEE shop owner has been left frustrated by “senseless” vandalism of his business after a group of shops were tagged with the name of a notorious gang.

Deja Bru Cafe at McDowall targeted by vandals overnight. Picture: Darren Cartwright

A COFFEE shop owner has been left frustrated by “senseless” vandalism of his business after a group of shops were tagged with the name of a notorious gang.

Gucci gangsters terrorise Brisbane

Déjà Bru owner Peter Ye arrived at his McDowall cafe early this morning to find a bi-fold door had been smashed, the floor had been spray painted, his shop front tagged and a fire extinguisher had been activated.

CCTV footage has shown a vandal in the act at the Deja Bru cafe.

He told The Courier-Mail he was thankful nothing had been stolen or smashed and he was able to open up as usual and serve customers despite the damage.

“It’s senseless,” Mr Ye said.

“They tried to break in next door but the window was too hard.

“A taxi driver called police at 3am to tell them of the damage.”

Déjà Bru was one of four businesses that had ‘NORTHside gang” sprayed across their glass shop fronts.

The vandal, who was caught on CCTV, smashing into the cafe, had tried to break into the Treasure House Chinese restaurant.

Deja Bru’s owner Peter Ye at his McDowall Village cafe. Picture: Darren Cartwright

The restaurant has a fractured window and was the most heavily tagged premises.

Mr Ye said the CCTV footage had been handed over to police and the recording confirmed the incident happened at 11.25pm last night.

He said it’s the second time he had been broken into in 12 months after $600 was stolen during a break and enter last year.

The tagged shop fronts include Sprenger Podiatry and Sabe Hair salon.

Mr Sprenger said the cafe was at least fortunate that it could operate despite the vandalism, but that would not have been the outcome had they repeated the vandalism at his business.

“If that happened here, we’d be out of action,” Mr Sprenger said.

He said there was graffiti at the rear of the group of businesses where there are no cameras but that was an issue that confronted all small shopping centres.

“The has been tagging at the rear and that’s annoying and it’s not so much the the cost of the damage to us, but people see it and interpret the area negatively.”

Sabe Hair and manager Nicole Weeks called it a nuisance.

WHO ARE THE NORTHSIDE GANG?

The ‘Northside gang’ has bragged online about having a large number of followers and has boasted about stealing cars and breaking into homes.

“If we wanted to, we could target every house on the northside (of Brisbane) in a day,” one of the members said in February.

The gang has more than 50 members and they have been collectively charged with at least 1000 offences over a two-year period, according to a Seven Network investigation earlier this year.

They were reportedly responsible for a series of incidents north of Brisbane’s in January including breaking into a retirement village at Morayfield and robbing stores at a nearby shopping centre.

A 17-year-old Petrie boy, arrested in February, and charged with a string of offences, including burglary, dangerous operation of a motor vehicle and the serious assault of a police officer, was considered the ring leader.