‘Evil’ teens threaten to stab Bendigo business owners as crime skyrockets
Bendigo shopkeepers say it is only a matter of time before someone is killed in the town’s most notorious shopping strip as a group of ‘evil’ teens target and steal from their stores.
Bendigo
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Bendigo shopkeepers say it is only a matter of time before someone is stabbed, assaulted or killed in the town’s most notorious shopping strip.
Lyttleton Terrace shopkeepers are living in fear of a group of teenagers, some reportedly as young as 11, who are threatening their businesses with knives, vandalising the street and stealing from their shops.
Lollies2Go owner Lisa Mitchell said the tension between the teens and shopkeepers had already boiled over on Good Friday when a brawl erupted at her business.
Ms Mitchell said as a lolly shop her business was targeted by the group, and on Good Friday she busted them shoplifting.
“They’re just looking for trouble,” Ms Mitchell said.
On the day of the Good Friday attack, she said her neighbour and Johnny’s Fruit and Veg owner Yuejian ‘Johnny’ Xue tried to help her move the teenagers on when they were attacked.
“They started kicking doors and signs,” Mr Xue said.
“I tried to get them out of there.
“Instead of leaving they came at me.”
Mr Xue said he started filming the group when they grabbed the phone and threw it to the ground and slapped his hand.
The grocery owner said he grabbed one of the teenagers and pushed them out of the arcade and into the street.
“Then the kids jumped on my back and tried to choke me,” Mr Xue said.
He said police arrived soon after, but most of the teenagers had run away.
Mr Xue said the Good Friday “brawl” had left him with a target on his back.
The Asian grocery owner said the teenagers had repeatedly threatened him and racially abused him, yelling out “ching chong” into his stores.
“These kids need to be stopped … when they get in a group they’re evil,” Mr Xue said.
“They’re using the worst possible ways to taunt you.
“They’ve said ‘Johnny we’re going to come back and stab you’.
“I don’t mind them (threatening) stabbing me, but it’s my wife and kids.
“I have everything to lose, but they have nothing to lose.”
He said on Mother’s Day, Sunday May 9, a few teens climbed onto the roof of his supermarket and jumped on his solar panels.
Mr Xue said when he asked the onlooking teens to call their friends down they “started circling me trying to throw punches and kicks”.
He said his heavily pregnant wife had caught a group of young shoplifters last Monday, May 31, and when they refused to return the items and he chased them down the street with a golf club.
“In people’s eyes I might be the crazy one doing the wrong thing,” Mr Xue said.
“(But) everything I have is hard-earned. I don’t want them to take things for free.”
Mr Xue said he had considered shutting down both his fruit and vegetable grocery store and his new Asian grocery for the safety of his young family.
He said he feared for his three-year-old and seven-year-old sons whenever they crossed the 50m stretch between the two stores.
“They have to walk across the road carefully, not because of the traffic but because of these kids,” Mr Xue said.
Ms Mitchell said she and Mr Xue were not alone.
“Every single business in Bendigo has had trouble with them,” Ms Mitchell said.
“It’s ongoing … They’re looking for trouble.”
She said the teenagers were making the whole street feel unsafe, particularly for her staff.
A Bendigo delivery driver, who asked not to be named, said he had been personally threatened by the youths and had glass bottles thrown at him.
“They’re reckless they don’t care what they’re doing,” he said.
He said every week there would be an incident in the shopping district, but when police arrived the kids would “just run off”.
The delivery driver said the area always had a reputation for anti-social behaviour, but the homeless and drunk people in the area rarely threatened businesses.
But he said the teenagers had escalated their behaviour since January.
Senior Sergeant Brian Hansen said Bendigo Police had a daily presence in Lyttleton Terrace to stop the anti-social behaviour.
Sgt Hansen said police made their presence felt, with daily drive-bys and foot patrols.
“We’re aware of the situation … and appreciate the concern and understand the impact on local businesses,” Sgt Hansen said.
Sgt Hansen said a recent operation was in direct response to the stabbing threats made against Lyttleton Terrace business owners.
In April, police seized eight weapons, including machetes, a kitchen knife, knuckledusters and a modified golf club, in a targeted operation to clamp down on edge-weapon crimes in Bendigo’s city heart.
Police said 58 people were searched and four Bendigo men were arrested in the operation.
Despite the police presence, talks with council and local politicians, the Bendigo residents said they still felt unsafe.
“There’s always this notion that everyone should have a safe work environment,” the Lyttleton Terrace delivery driver said.
“We don’t feel safe everyday.
“It’s got to the point where something really dreadful is going to happen if nothing gets done.
“Someone will be stabbed, someone will be bashed, someone will get hurt.”
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