Paul Weston: The Gold Coast suburb where you hide your car keys and the kids from gangs

In one of the fastest-growing Gold Coast suburbs, you keep your keys hidden at night, writes Paul Weston. You’re even forced to grab your kids and take a step back from the gangs while riding on the tram.

Police at a crime scene on the northern Gold Coast. Pic Tim Marsden

IN Australia’s fastest growing suburb on the northern Gold Coast, you keep your keys hidden at night. You grab your kids and take a step back from the gangs while riding on the tram.

Thank you Coomera, what a welcome my family had to 2019.

The tram ride began smoothly enough from Helensvale station. Police had extra officers on duty and picked up a drunken teen.

The crowded Gold Coast trams.

But four stops later, opposite the old Gold Coast hospital site, six drunken girls joined our packed carriage.

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Young families were on board for the 9pm fireworks off Surfers Paradise beach. The girls, aged between 12 and 14, stumbled down the aisle towards us.

The tallest girl was shouting into her mobile phone, dropping the F-bomb and finally the C-bomb. A young guy next to me said: “Hey, there’s kids on board, watch your language.”

She glared at him before collapsing on the floor. He looked down in disgust.

Crime on the northern Gold Coast — a crime scene is created after police shot at a car believed to be stolen car at an Upper Coomera shopping centre. Photo: Channel 7 News.

“Stop staring at my f-ing top,” she said. He turned away.

“I’m not interested, I’m gay,” he said.

The girls were primed for a fight, in the face of other passengers.

“Watch your mouth young lady,” an older guy said to them.

A middle-aged woman looked for an emergency button and rang police on her phone.

She opened the doors at a station north of Surfers Paradise. Some of the gang spilled out on the platform. As the doors closed, a girl pounded on the window with her fist.

“She’s from Coomera. Every cop there knows her name. They’re in a gang that goes around on the tram,” the woman told other passengers.

Last Saturday morning, around 2.30am, another more professional Coomera gang stuck.

Householders were sound asleep in their duplex.

A car pulled up and offloaded gang members.

Coomera MP Michael Crandon — police are trying their best.

They broke in through the laundry door and searched at least two upstairs rooms, finding the keys to a four-month-old $30,000 sedan, as well as a wallet and the garage remote control.

Neighbours heard the garage door open and the car roar off, thinking it was just an early shift start. They went back to sleep.

Later in the morning police explained that a gang is working its way through the suburb, checking vehicles parked at theme parks for papers that reveal identification details, including addresses.

Coomera MP Michael Crandon showed no surprise when contacted after returning from a meeting where police warned residents to secure their keys.

“They don’t only knock off your car. They load up all your kit — take all your gear before they take off,” he said.

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“The police are trying their best. The reality is domestic violence remains their highest priority. The staff rosters get thinner. The coppers go on long service leave and other leave. “They have no one to back fill those positions. You can imagine the amount of pressure these guys are under.”

The Opposition had asked the State Government in parliament for approved strength numbers for police across the region. Of the 1015 approved cops on the Coast, 67 are at Coomera, which compares to 100 at Southport.

A police source said: “That 100 is not correct. It’s all smoke and mirrors. They can, at some times, have 20 off work.”

Mr Crandon has continued to lobby for at least another 50 officers.

He said Coomera should be comparable to Southport.

But his immediate priority was finding his car keys.

“I asked my wife where they are. She told me she’s hidden them,” he said.