NT Police call for information after stolen cars allegedly taken for joy ride

Three youths aged between 12 and 14 have been arrested after allegedly taking a stolen car for a joy ride through Alice Springs’ CBD.

Three youths have been arrested after allegedly driving a stolen car dangerously through Alice Springs’ CBD for several hours on Saturday night.

An NT police spokesman said police received reports that a white Toyota LandCruiser had been stolen from a Bath St carpark about 4.30pm on Saturday.

He said the vehicle was allegedly observed driving dangerously around Alice Springs’ CBD, including allegedly trying to ram police vehicles.

A tyre deflation device was deployed on Gregory Tce at 8pm.

Three youths, aged 12, 13, and 14, were subsequently arrested a short time later.

Damage to Alice Springs Town Council lawns caused by a stolen vehicle over the weekend. Picture: Facebook.

The 13-year-old and 14-year-old were charged with multiple offences including unlawfully using a motor vehicle and driving in a dangerous manner.

They were both bailed to appear in court on August 3.

The spokesman said the 12-year-old would be dealt with under provisions of the Youth Justice Act.

In a separate and unrelated incident, a blue Toyota Yaris was stolen from a premise on Stuart Tce about 2am on Sunday.

The spokesman said tyre deflation devices were successfully deployed later that day with the vehicle found abandoned in bushland off Ilparapa Rd.

Both incidents come after NT Police noted youth disturbances were on the rise in the town.

Strike Force Viper detectives are asking anyone with information on either incident to contact police on 131 444 quoting reference 10412585.

Alice Springs youth disturbances on the rise

Police are observing more youth on the streets of Alice Springs but maintain alcohol restrictions have caused crime to reduce significantly.

Acting Commander James Gray-Spence told radio on Thursday youth disturbances were increasing in the town.

“Our youth disturbances have been going up, the youth disturbances don’t necessarily result in criminal conduct,” he said.

“So we can see more youth out in the CBD, we definitely during the school holidays talked to more youth, but that hasn’t come up in the offences.”

However, Acting Commander Gray-Spence maintained May was still a quiet month for police, noting police data could be skewed due to the high amount of incidents during the last “horror” summer in Alice Springs.

Acting Commander Gray-Spence said crime was down significantly compared to a “horror summer” despite an increase in youth disturbances. Picture Mark Brake

Crime data for the month of May showed a 31 per cent increase in assaults, 40 per cent increase in domestic violence related assaults and a 45 per cent increase in alcohol related assaults compared to the same time last year.

“So that comparative analysis there is from June 1, 2022 to May 31, 2023 and then the comparative period is from June 1, 2021 to May 31, 2022,” he said.

“So when you’ve got such unprecedented spikes, for example in Alice Springs what we saw in October, November, December it’s going to skew it when you’re looking at a year when we didn’t have that.”

He said he was supportive of the extension of alcohol restrictions in Alice Springs, saying police incidents in May were the lowest it had been in four years.

Police say a decrease in crime is strongly correlated to the absence of takeaway alcohol on Mondays and Tuesdays. Picture Mark Brake

The extension has come under fire by Alice Springs mayor Matt Paterson who wanted to see more policy changes beyond the restrictions, saying alcohol is not the sole cause of issues in Alice Springs.

“We’ve come down from those peaks that we saw in summer that we’ve never seen before,” Acting Commander Gray-Spence said.

“This is the first time in Alice Springs we’ve got the banned drinkers register, we’ve got the point of sale intervention and now we’ve got even further measures that will limit the physical availability of alcohol.

“What we can see now is that the lowest incidents we have week to week are on our Mondays and Tuesdays and that would strongly correlate to the absence of takeaway alcohol.”