Gold Coast family left on hold to triple-0, hours waiting for police during alleged armed teen home invasion

A young Gold Coast family who allegedly had their home invaded by a knife wielding youth gang have revealed their frustrating dealings with police. Read what happened.

Armed teen gang invade Gold Coast family's home. Picture: Supplied.

A Gold Coast couple that endured a terrifying alleged home invasion involving a youth gang armed with a machete and a meat cleaver were left on hold to triple-0 and waited hours for a police response.

It is understood five juveniles jumped the front fence to the family’s Runaway Bay home about 3am on Saturday, breaking open a screen door to get inside where Kate Jones, her husband and their three-year-old son were sleeping.

“I just saw a figure from the bedroom standing with a knife,” Ms Jones said.

“It was like a big butchers knife essentially – as soon as I saw it, I was on the phone to triple-0.”

One of the teenagers carrying a large machete. Picture: Supplied.

Cowering in her bedroom with her husband – their young child in the room next door – the couple frantically tried to reach police.

“The dispatch lady was like ‘stay on the line, I'm going to connect you’. No one was answering and she said she was going to connect us to a different service,” Ms Jones said of the triple-0 call.

“That went on for I think a total of 10 minutes. She (dispatcher) was saying ‘please stay on the line, please stay on the line’ she said that to me about seven times. She was baffled, she was saying ‘please stay calm, are they still there?’.

“When they weren’t answering my husband was like we’ve gotta get out, they’re going to come for us with those knives.

One of the armed teens carrying what appears to be a meat clever. Picture: Supplied.

Ms Jones said her husband took matters into his own hands, confronting the armed teens and chasing them out of the house. One of the offenders dropping a meat cleaver on the floor as they made their escape.

The teens allegedly took two sets of cars keys, a wallet with hundreds of dollars in cash and a piece of jewellery – before taking off in two cars waiting outside the home.

The couple were eventually connected to police, and told officers were on their way. They didn’t arrive until 7am, four hours after the armed intruders had been and gone.

“Those police officers asked us how many officers had been to our house already and we said none, you’re the first,” Ms Jones said.

A weapon left behind by one of the offenders. Picture: Supplied.

“They couldn't believe it, they said they had just come on duty and they had been asked to come and follow up with us.”

In a statement a Queensland Police Service (QPS) spokesman said three juveniles including a 15-year-old boy from Redbank Plains, 15-year-old girl from Inala, and a 17-year-old girl from Bundamba have all be charged with property offences relating to the alleged home invasion.

They were denied police bail to face Brisbane Children’s Court on Monday.

For months the Bulletin has exposed issues with the Queensland Police Service (QPS) and response to emergencies.

Last month’s leaked data showed hundreds of calls to the QPS triple-0 network were ringing out and going unanswered every week as the service regularly fails to meet it’s benchmark of answering 90 per cent of calls within 10 seconds.

In a recent email sent to QPS staff at a police station southwest of Brisbane, a senior officer pleaded with staff to take on extra shifts answering triple-0 calls with the service unable to cope. 

“PCC (Police Communication Centres) cannot at the moment keep up with demand coming in on triple-0,” they wrote.

“We are not meeting our obligations to members of the public. We also have certain contractual obligations with Telstra.”

Originally published as Gold Coast family left on hold to triple-0, hours waiting for police during alleged armed teen home invasion