Ugg boot inventor Shane Stedman’s car stolen in ‘frightening’ home invasion

A surf legend who invented the ugg boot woke to a trio of teens in his home demanding money, as locals in a coastal town grow concerned over young thugs breaking into homes and businesses.

A surfing legend also known for inventing the ugg boot has become one of the many victims of a group of young thugs terrorising a coastal community, after they stole his car in a late-night home invasion.

Shane Stedman, a famous surfboard-maker who started selling sheepskin boots from his factory in the 1960s, woke to find a trio of teen crims shining a torch in his face and demanding he hand over cash, after they broke into his Crescent Head home last month.

In the coastal hamlets of Crescent Head and South West Rocks, locals are investing in security cameras and additional locks on their doors and windows, as kids as young as eight break into homes in search of anything from cash to cars.

“It frightened the hell out of me, you can imagine,” Mr Stedman told The Sunday Telegraph.

“They were standing over me and I quickly yelled ‘I don’t have any money’.

Shane Stedman said the intruders “frightened the hell out of me”.

“By the time I got out of my recliner sleeping chair, they’d taken off with my car keys and my friend’s handbag, her phone, credit cards, just about whatever they could get their hands on.”

The hooded thieves had shimmied into his home through some open levers in the bathroom, and took off with Mr Stedman’s new Toyota LandCruiser and his friend’s car, which were later found torched.

“They were well covered up, faces, everything, no chances of telling who they were,” he said.

“It’s a sad shame they do this, it’s just a damn waste.”

Mr Stedman, now 83, said he’d spent hundreds of dollars on home security in recent times, turning his property into “Fort Knox” amid a local spate of thefts and break-ins.

“Crescent Head is a lovely place but the youth crime is a big problem here, these kids aren’t very old and already they are up to this kind of behaviour,” he said.

“They’ve been taught all the wrong things in life.”

Kempsey Shire Council deputy mayor Julie Coburn said children as young as eight had been involved in home invasions and crimes across the area, which often worsened around the school holidays.

“Some of the stories you hear are horrendous,” she said.

“Children have always been involved in petty crimes, but we are talking about young children, aged between eight and 15, out late at night, entering homes with machetes and axes, stealing cars and money.”

Shane Stedman's $150,000 LandCruiser was stolen from his Crescent Head home in the middle of the night and found burnt out. Picture: supplied

While locals praised the efforts of police in the area, small communities had resorted to “old school” neighbourhood watch teams to look out for the most vulnerable.

“They are often targeting the elderly or women who live alone,” Ms Coburn said.

“Neighbourhood watch teams have been set up to try and help each other out, because this is a very real situation for us.”

This week, The Committee on Law and Safety inquiry investigating the drivers of youth crime sat in Kempsey, where 75-year-old Marilyn Figgett told the public hearing she had been the subject of 17 home invasions over the past 18 years.

The hearing heard many children caught up in crime were choosing to roam the streets rather than stay home, where they are faced with addiction issues and domestic violence.

NSW Police Northern Regional Commander David Waddell told the hearing there was a need for more safe places for young people who were caught in the cycle of crime.

“How do we fix the situation for those kids who can’t be at home, don’t want to be at home, where do they go,” Assistant Commissioner Waddell said.

Hearings are set to continue in the coming weeks, as the committee seeks out specific actions the NSW government can take to prevent regional crime.

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Originally published as Ugg boot inventor Shane Stedman’s car stolen in ‘frightening’ home invasion