Darwin local laments lack of police assistance after personally investigating and finding vehicle

Forced to personally investigate and recover his stolen vehicle, Harrison Vincent tried to provide police footage of the alleged offenders only for police to decline potential evidence. Now, the Darwin man is searching for answers.

A Darwin man is searching for answers after he was forced to personally investigate and recover his stolen vehicle, with police also declining to take footage of the alleged offenders allegedly joy-riding the car.

On Saturday May 25, Harrison Vincent woke up to find his apartment building’s gate had broken off its hinge and his 75 series LandCruiser missing.

When Mr Vincent, 27, called police, it was hinted that the victim’s neighbours had already notified authorities of the apparent break-in.

Police then reassured Mr Vincent that an officer would contact him shortly in relation to the incident.

Following the phone call, Mr Vincent said he was concerned when his neighbours claimed they had called police shortly after the theft had occurred, but no officers had arrived on-scene in the hours that followed.

“They reported the incident and the police said they would send someone to check it out,” Mr Vincent told the NT News.

“My neighbours waited for quite a long time through the night and no police actually turned up.”

Darwin local Harrison Vincent discovered his neighbours had waited for hours for police to arrive – they never did. Picture: Supplied.

More than 48 hours after Mr Vincent phoned police, no officer had contacted the victim as promised.

“I was in Melbourne for work and I called the police asking for any updates and they said there was (no update) and again that an officer would be in contact with me shortly.”

From afar, Mr Vincent learned via social media that various members of the community had sighted his dumped vehicle.

“Some people were sharing posts of a car that had been dumped in Malak and so I was getting second and third-hand information from people saying ‘we think this is your car’,” he said.

“Three different people told me they had reported the dumped car to police – keeping in mind this is a vehicle that’s already been reported stolen with its plates still visible.”

Members of the public alerted Mr Vincent that his vehicle had been dumped in Malak. Police informed the victim the vehicle was still missing, despite community members claiming to have reported the vehicle. Picture: Supplied.

Mr Vincent alerted authorities to the sightings, but police maintained his vehicle remained missing.

“I asked police if they could confirm my car had been found and they said ‘no, your car has not been found’.”

However, a good Samaritan contacted Mr Vincent and verified the dumped vehicle was indeed his 75 series LandCruiser, which prompted Mr Vincent to contact authorities once more.

“I called the police again – ‘this is my vehicle, is anyone going to go out and see it?’” he said.

“Police said ‘we’re too busy for that and as far as we’re concerned the matter is closed’.”

Mr Vincent said he then offered to provide footage of the alleged offenders’ joy-riding in his vehicle, to ensure the culprits could be caught.

“Police said ‘we don’t deal with that on this line you should contact the officer who called you originally’,” he said.

“But I told them again: ‘no one has called me this whole time, it’s only been me calling you’.”

Harrison Vincent's dumped 75 series LandCruiser was found with broken windows, shredded tires and the word 'Lucifer' planted across it. Picture: Supplied.

Mr Vincent said he was told police were “too busy” to pursue the matter and that he should “be grateful” that his vehicle had been recovered.

After organising the towing of his wrecked vehicle, Mr Vincent said he felt deflated by the lack of assistance.

“It’s the community that has come together and helped me get my car back,” he said.

“The police were not only completely unhelpful, but they were completely disinterested in receiving any evidence or accepting any of the help I tried to give them to try and catch these people.

“I understand they’ve got a lot of things going on and that in my circumstance there was no one in immediate danger, but this kind of experience makes me think police aren’t too interested in pursuing these culprits.”

NT Police did not respond when approached for comment.

Originally published as Darwin local laments lack of police assistance after personally investigating and finding vehicle