Stockland staff scared for safety during shocking vandalism
Staff at a Queensland shopping centre say they are becoming too afraid to work late at night for fear of "getting rolled” by violent youths as a spate of vandalism, harassment and theft worsens.
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1PM: A 14-year-old boy and a 16-year-old girl have shown no remorse after they vandalised Stockland Rockhampton's Donut King last night.
The teenagers were believed to have entered Stockland Shopping Centre after hours through a fire door at 9.30pm, when they headed to the donut retailer and proceeded to cause intentional damage.
CCTV footage shows the pair spraying the tiles with food and drinks while laughing and smiling.
Detective Snr Sgt Luke Peachy said the pair, who are known to police, jumped over Donut King's front counter and vandalised the centre, took a number of food products and proceeded to vandalise not just Donut King but the shopping centre in total.
Although it doesn't appear any cash was stolen a number of food products were taken, including soft drink, hot dog buns, and donuts.
A chocolate fondue machine was also used to vandalise other locations.
The teenagers then moved on to a Subway franchise on Blanchard St, where they threw rocks at windows and caused more damage before they were detained by the owners of another business.
Police attended and then detained and arrested the two who have since been charged with burglary and wilful damage.
They will appear in Rockhampton Children's Court on July 23.
"Currently further investigations are ongoing in regards to possible further offences that may apply to those persons,” Det Snr Sgt Peachy said.
"We're as outraged as everyone else. Businesses as we know are doing it tough at the moment.
"For these two juveniles to enter that place and not even just try steal to anything, virtually just there to vandalise... it's totally disgusting.
"As you can see by the (Facebook) post, the public is as outraged as police are.”
Det Snr Sgt Peachy said police are trying to stop further offences like this from occurring and are asking the public to assist them by reporting any suspicious behaviour immediately, "particularly by juveniles around that area”.
Police are still looking at CCTV footage to get an exact idea of how the juveniles entered the centre.
It is currently being investigated whether the juveniles were under the influence of alcohol or drugs at the time.
"There are a number of projects out there like Project Booyah and other youth projects, and we'd encourage all persons that are using their time to commit offences to think otherwise,” Det Snr Sgt Peachy said.
"As we've seen recently, our clear up rate is very good here, so if you commit an offence, you will be arrested and hopefully you will spend a little time away.
"Think more positively about how your time can be used.”
Police are working closely with Stockland centre management to increase security and police patrols around the area.
"Daily we are dealing with persons around that area but we will continue to be proactive in our approach to patrolling.”
Videos to come.
Intial story: JACINTA Corbett and her colleagues were stuck, huddled in Stockland Rockhampton's toilets on Thursday night, worried about "getting rolled” by a pack of vandals who were trashing the centre.
Upon leaving the toilets, Ms Corbett was met with an appalling sight: soft drink bottles everywhere, their contents sprayed down the long stretch of floor from Donut King all the way up to Adairs.
There was chocolate sauce, barbecue sauce and toppings from Donut King covering the countertops and floors, with signs, food trays and other property tossed everywhere.
Ms Corbett, who works at Optus, attempted to call security but the line had been disconnected.
"We just have to shut our doors and hope they don't walk down and see we're still in store before security comes up,” she said.
"The worst part is, the poor lady that owns Donut King has now lost stock, will have to spend time and money to clean it all up, but the idiots who cause all the mess just run off with probably zero repercussions.
"It's getting so bad that it's dangerous to work til 9pm.
"Life is too short for you to be scared to walk to your car.”
Anti-social behaviour has long been the norm at the shopping centre, with reports of vandalism, harassment and theft becoming more and more common.
This morning Ms Corbett posted the startling footage of the aftermath on Facebook and was met by outrage with over 400 comments by 10am.
Police will be making a statement about the vandalism this morning.
More to come.
Facebook reacts
Gail Toon: "I even hate going there now scared to park any where and always look around before I get out of car.”
Catherine Wisley: "That's disgraceful!! I hope they get what they deserve. Should make them clean it and work off their debt.”
Samantha Kingston: "They should be made to pay for the clean up. They do this all the time.”
Rosie Stevens: "If Stockland don't do something to stop this, soon there won't be too many customers going there.”
Rhiannon Nutsch: "I work in the centre and I can tell you now both myself, colleagues and staff from other stores hold genuine concern for our safety. It is only a matter of time before this behaviour escalates and someone is seriously hurt.”
Anique Portch: "This is EXACTLY why I'm leaving the centre for the first time in over a decade of working in there. It is so unsafe, you can't look at people sideways without getting abused.”
Originally published as Stockland staff scared for safety during shocking vandalism