Palm Beach residents want meeting, curfew as crime soars

Locals in one affluent seaside Gold Coast suburb have called a public meeting and want a curfew to crack down on what they say is a soaring crime issue.

It’s Gold Coast suburb booming like perhaps no other - but so, too, say angry locals, is crime.

Once a haven for surfies and druggies, Palm Beach on the southern end of the Glitter Strip is undergoing a massive transformation, with old beach shacks making way for a wave of luxury apartment buildings, and trendy eateries springing up, in anticipation of the Coast’s light-rail being extended to Coolangatta airport.

But frustrated locals say crime is also soaring, with break-ins, car thefts and teen gangs running riot.

Local community Facebook pages are filled with almost daily reports of burglaries, car thefts and vandalism as offenders, many of them youths, go on a crime spree.

Angry locals say crime is soaring at Palm Beach on the Gold Coast and have called a public meeting. Picture: Glenn Hampson

A fed-up Palm Beach businesswoman, whose cafe was broken into and ransacked by ‘little maggots’ at the weekend, has called a public meeting to address the suburb’s crime issues.

Marie Hood, who owns the Third Base cafe which opened in March, says locals have had enough of “escalating crime”.

She has called a public meeting in her cafe on June 2 to discuss the problem, with local politicians invited.

“We have to speak up and act,” she posted on the Palm Beach-Currumbin-Elanora Residents Community Group page.

Ms Hood had earlier posted details of the break-in at her cafe, in which “little maggots” ripped the safe off the wall and stole items including the establishment’s UberEats iPad.

She also posted CCTV footage of two youths kicking in the door of a neighbouring convenience store last week.

Youths attempt to break into a Palm Beach business.

A local woman said two cars were stolen from her home the same night the convenience store was hit.

Some locals have called for a curfew to stop rampaging youths.

“It’s a monumental joke,” one woman posted.

“(Police) risk their lives every day to track and catch crims only to have them released on ‘good behaviour’ bond or a warning and slap on the wrist.

“It’s a thankless job, they (police) do the hard work and the courts let these smug grinning jerks back out on the streets, just to do it again and again.”

Originally published as Palm Beach residents want meeting, curfew as crime soars