Upper Coomera woman watches thieves ransack home on live stream sent from motion detection camera
A Gold Coast woman thought her pets had set off a motion detection camera in her home. But when she checked the live stream on her phone she realised something far more sinister was happening. SEE THE VIDEO
Crime and Court
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AN Upper Coomera woman watched a pair of thieves ransack her home and steal “priceless” heirlooms on a motion detection camera while she was at a coffee shop kilometres away.
After the crooks used a jemmy bar to force open the front door, the footage shows them casually walking through the home, going from room to room and filling a garbage bag with jewellery and cash.
One of the thieves covers his face with his hoodie jumper and a hat, as the other casually walks around the house.
The pair were in and out of the Godden Dr home in three minutes, stealing sentimental items including jewellery from the owner, Jennifer Bracken.
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Minutes after the pair make their escape, police can be seen entering the home with their tasers drawn.
“I have a motion detector camera inside my house,” Ms Bracken said. “It alerts my mobile phone if someone is in the house.
“I went out at 10am, was sitting at Westfield Helensvale and I get an alert. I opened it up to have a look. I thought it might have been the cat or the dog, or maybe my son coming to get his mail.
“Then I looked again and it’s not my son. I panicked and rang triple 0 as I’m running down Helensvale, that’s at 11.04ish and they were in and out of the house in two to three minutes.
“They’ve smashed open the front door with a jemmy bar. They must have been watching to make sure we’ve gone out.
“I’m watching them rob me.
“At 11.16am, police were at the house and we pulled up as well. We were so close to catching them.”
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She said the break-in had devastated her.
“They’ve gone into the study, pulling out drawers, gone into another study and done the same and then into a master bedroom and grabbed all the jewellery off the dressing table.
“The stuff they took from the jewellery box cannot be replaced. It’s stuff from when I was a child. There are family heirlooms in there, there are things that have been given to me that cannot be replaced.
“They didn’t smash, break or take anything else. It was small stuff like cash and jewellery. I had laptops and phones sitting around they didn’t touch any of it. Just stuff they could offload that can’t be tracked. It’s devastating. I feel sick.”
Ms Bracken said she left the house to sign paperwork for a house she had just bought. It was meant to be a happy day – before seeing her home being ransacked and nothing she could do about it.
“I’ve been inundated with messages now from people who have been done over. It’s rife,’’ she said.
“I’ve never had this happen to me in my life. I didn’t think it really happened.
“I have just bought a house to move, thank Christ, because I don’t think I could stay in this environment now, because of the way this has made me feel.
“On one of the happiest days of my life, to see that on the footage, it’s devastating.”
Anyone with information about the robbery or others in the Upper Coomera area, contact Crime Stoppers on 1800 333 000.
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