Tamworth youth crime: town on edge as car thefts, home invasions surge

Teenage thugs armed with knives and machetes are “creeping” into homes under the cover of darkness, often filming their sleeping victims and stealing their cars.

Teenage thugs armed with bats and machetes are breaking into homes under the cover of darkness to steal keys to powerful cars then take them on dangerous joy rides.

Tamworth in the state’s northeast – best known as the nation’s country music capital – has become a hotspot for youth crime, with police sources admitting “boredom” is fuelling the crisis.

The unprecedented levels of violence in bush towns, uncovered in a series of articles by The Daily Telegraph, prompted the Minns government to last week announce a landmark inquiry into youth crime in country NSW.

In the New England and North West region, on average two cars were stolen every day last year, up 18 per cent on five years ago.

The Daily Telegraph witnessed the violent and brazen nature of the crimes when it joined police officers on a Saturday night this month to patrol the streets of Tamworth.

Graffiti in Coledale, a suburb of Tamworth. Picture: David Swift

As early as 9pm police responded to reports of a male covered in blood wandering through front yards carrying a machete. Police suspected the man had tried to break into a home but was caught by the residents and roughed up.

In a separate incident, a 31-year-old man on an electric scooter suffered serious injuries to his face and legs after being hit by a stolen white Holden Colorado.

The ute had allegedly been stolen by two young men after breaking into a home in Gunnedah, about an hour’s drive away.

The men then drove to Tamworth where they allegedly smashed into the 31-year-old on the scooter, knocking him to the ground and dragging him along the road. Police believe the hit and run may have been intentional.

Police believe the men then drove to industrial auction house, Country Auctions, and reversed into the front gate multiple times in an attempt to ram it open.

A burnt out car after a police pursuit.. Picture: David Swift

The burnt out car. Picture: David Swift

Local panel beater Andrew Maher and his son drove past the auction house in their tow truck just after 11pm and could see two men trying to load a motorbike in the back of the ute.

Mr Maher said he was immediately suspicious and parked his truck near the entrance to prevent a quick escape and called the police.

“They looked like they were using a white fold-up table to load the motorbike in the back, but the canopy was still on, so they couldn’t fit it in – the idiots kept trying to force it in,” he said.

“I asked them what they were doing, which scared them. They jumped back into the ute but because our vehicles were blocking the exit they drove up over this dirt mound onto the main road and the motorbike, which they’d wedged in, fell off the back.”

The men in the ute then led police on a high-speed pursuit along the New England Highway.

Police tried to stop the vehicle by throwing spikes on the road but narrowly missed and hit the side of the car instead, its tray flapping about as it drove past.

Police will allege the driver then returned to the scene of the earlier hit and run, spinning the ute tyres, drifting sideways and accelerating over the crime scene, in an attempt to destroy the physical evidence.

In the New England and North West region, on average two cars were stolen every day last year, up 18 per cent on five years ago.. Picture: David Swift

Officers at the scene had to jump out of the way to avoid being hit, with the ute going more than 50km/h over the speed limit.

In Tamworth, most stolen vehicles end up in the south of the town, in an area called Coledale. After midnight the driver made his way there, driving into a small park with a forlorn children’s playground and set the ute on fire, the air of the wheels popping as the rubber melted, the horn wailing and the vehicle’s one working headlight blinking on and off.

Police later arrested a 19-year-old man and charged him with 10 offences including two counts of break enter and steal and dangerous driving occasioning grievous bodily harm. The 19-year-old has been known to police since he was a child, previously having been charged with crimes as part of Operation Mongoose, the statewide police operation focusing on young offenders.

By Monday morning, the local smash repairs had taken delivery of an additional two stolen vehicles which had been trashed and abandoned on the Sunday evening.

Only four days later, at 5am on Thursday morning, two 13-year-old boys and one 14-year-old boy allegedly broke into the home of a 68-year-old woman in South Tamworth, wielding a bat. When one tried to grab her wrist, she threw a punch forcing him to let go. The boys left after allegedly stealing her Holden Commodore.

The three held onto the car all day until police tried to stop them just before midnight, engaging in a high speed pursuit, which had to be stopped due to speeds becoming too unsafe. The Holden was later discovered abandoned and the three teens arrested.

In a separate incident on the same day, a woman walking down a Tamworth street at 10am was mugged in broad daylight by three youths, her handbag ripped from her body.

A police source said there was often no financial motive for the crimes.

“It’s stupid, it’s boredom,” the source said.

“You look at some of these kids, they’re not living in a beautiful home with loving parents and siblings they get along with – sometimes they want to be anywhere else but home.”

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