Schoolies 2019: Woman living in fear after trolley found parked on roof of home
A Gold Coast woman in the Schoolies party zone claims she is living in fear after rowdy teens left her feeling unsafe in her own home.
Gold Coast
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A GOLD Coast woman in the Schoolies party zone says she is living in fear of the celebrations after waking up to a shopping trolley on her roof.
Bronwen McCann didn’t get to sleep until 3am on Monday after Schoolies were causing a ruckus near her Sunset Boulevard home in Surfers Paradise.
She didn’t know it was Schoolies so close to home until she woke up to see a “large trolley” parked on her roof.
“There was a lot of noise as there is every night during Schoolies,” Mrs McCann said. “I woke up to a large trolley on my roof.”
Authorities have so far praised overall behaviour of almost 11,000 Schoolies partying in Surfers Paradise but Ms McCann said: “When you hear a noise and it’s so close you think ‘what is going on?’. The last thing you want to do is go out there when there’s that much noise because they could be on drugs or anything. That’s not safe either.”
Mrs McCann has been living at her single-storey home for 16 years with her husband but said she was afraid while he was interstate for work.
“Normally it’s pulling beer bottles out of the garden. We are used to that. But when it comes to something like what happened - how did they get (the trolley) up there? Were they in my yard prowling around?
“Schoolies are entitled to have fun but I’m also entitled to feel safe.”
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She said she wasn’t sure who to contact about protecting her safety.
“I tried to ring the police station up at Orchid Avenue but it just rings out. What good is that for someone who might urgently need them?”
Gold Coast Safer Schoolies chairman Mark Reaburn said the trolley situation was “dangerous” and to alert police.
“If that sort of activity is going on, ring the police,” he said.
“The law is the same for non-Schoolies. If they are in units, generally (people) can go to the unit managers.”
Also on Monday a 17-year-old girl was filmed walking along a balcony ledge in a Surfers Paradise building.
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Gold Coast Police Acting Chief Superintendent Craig Hanlon confirmed yesterday afternoon the girl from Brisbane was a not a registered Schoolie.
“Police were notified after. We know who she is. We understand they were not a registered resident at the unit (and) we understand management had evicted them.”
Mr Hanlon said those climbing structures faced a “penalty of up to a year in prison or 20 penalty units”.
Police had a tent in the heart of Cavill Avenue breathalysing schoolies yesterday.
Nine Schoolies - eight boys and one girl - were arrested, mostly for drug possession, on Monday night.
Gold Coast police also arrested 15 non-schoolies on 23 charges, relating to public nuisance and drug possession.
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