Dandenong and Casey like a ‘Costco’ for car criminals
Transient crooks using public transport are treating Melbourne’s southeast like a huge car supermarket, travelling in and out on the Frankston line, as police struggle to contain opportunistic vehicle crime across the region. SEE THE HOTSPOTS
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Thieves travel into Melbourne’s southeast by bus and train to steal — or steal from — cars in affluent suburbs.
Police say the crooks see the region as like a “Costco” and officers struggle to contain the car crime.
Senior police said the majority of crime affecting the region was “vehicle centric” with new figures revealing almost one in every four cars stolen in Victoria is taken from the southern suburbs.
They said the crimes – both car theft and theft from motor vehicles – was mostly centred around train and bus corridors with a large number of thieves using public transport to travel in and out of the area.
Car owners in Casey, Glen Eira and Greater Dandenong alone were left almost $3.2 million out-of-pocket in the past year, with tools and power tools, electrical appliances, cash and number plates the most popular goods taken from cars by thieves.
One senior sergeant at a beachside police station said the Frankston train line was the transport method of choice for a lot of crooks.
“They jump on the Frankston line train, get off in affluent areas and treat it like a personal Costco,” he said.
“They take whatever they can and then jump back on the train and go home.”
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The senior sergeant said it was the number one issue impacting beachside suburbs like Brighton, Beaumaris, Sandringham and Aspendale.
And it’s not just money and expensive belongings being taken from cars.
On February 13 a woman’s car was broken into on Alma Rd in St Kilda and a handbag and Macbook were stolen, but it was cherished memories she will miss the most.
Stored on the laptop were more than 10,000 images and videos of the woman’s late mother, who passed away in 2018.
On February 1 a crook broke into a car in Aspendale Gardens, stealing a wallet and using bank cards from it at shops in Chelsea Heights and at a bank branch in Aspendale Gardens.
Superintendent Paul Hollowood, of the Southern Metro police region, said they had a strong focus on public transport locations.
“A lot of these offences are actually committed near the transport corridors for the train and bus networks,” he said.
“There tends to be people who are a bit transient through an area, they’re travelling on public transport into an area and committing offences.
“A lot of the theft from motor vehicles is opportunistic, it's committed in the moment, which reinforces that importance of basic security steps in terms of people locking their vehicles and making sure they don't have their possessions on display because once an offender sees the opportunity they'll generally take advantage of it.”
Across the southeast – mostly south of the Monash Freeway from Port Phillip to Cardinia – 4727 vehicles out of a total of almost 20,000 in Victoria were stolen in the year ending September 2019, Crime Statistics Agency data shows.
The Leader can reveal more than a quarter of the vehicles stolen across the state were without forced entry as careless owners continue to make it easy for opportunistic crims.
The damage bill from theft from motor vehicle offences topped $28.9 million in Victoria, with Casey, Dandenong and Glen Eira among the top 10 hardest hit areas.
Frustrated police have said their one simple message urging motorists to lock up and remove valuables continues to be ignored as they try to crack down on the thieves.
Operation Tidal – run across Greater Dandenong, Casey and Cardinia – has netted charges for 445 car theft and 186 theft from motor vehicle offences since April last year.
It has also seen more than 2000 traffic infringements issued and resulted in 1161 arrests in relation to vehicle crime, robberies and assaults.
Earlier this month, the Dandenong Frontline Tactical Unit, with assistance from the Dog Squad, arrested two men in Springvale as part of Operation Tidal in relation to an allegedly stolen motorbike.
Police attempted to pull over the motorcycle with a rider and passenger on board in View Rd but they fled before dumping the bike in a court and running away.
The alleged thieves were found by the Dog Squad, with a Cranbourne man, 39, remanded on charges of reckless conduct endangering life, theft of motor vehicle, dangerous and unlicensed driving, and his Clyde North passenger, 20, released pending further inquiries.
“All of our general crime down here is vehicle centric,” Supt Hollowood said.
“If it's not directly related to vehicles it is somehow connected to it.
“While you might get theft of motor cars and theft from motor cars, there's a lot of offences that stem from those initial acts.
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“Somebody might break into a car and steal credit cards, for example, and then take those credit cards and commit frauds, or they may steal number plates to put on a stolen car and do a drive off at from a petrol station.”
Number plates were the most popular item for crooks, with 1372 stolen in Casey, 1054 in Dandenong and 477 in Glen Eira.
More than $675,000 worth of tools and power tools were taken from vehicles in Casey, almost $400,000 worth in Glen Eira and $160,000 worth in Dandenong, while electrical appliances also proved costly with $181,000 worth stolen from the three municipalities.