Deadline: Could this must-have in crime-ridden Johannesburg be coming to Melb’s leafy east?
As Melbourne’s avalanche of aggravated burglaries turns the city into a version of Johannesburg, residents in some affluent suburbs are considering shock tactics to zap the bad guys into rethinking their intentions.
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Mark Buttler and Andrew Rule with the latest scallywag scuttlebutt.
Electric avenue against crooks
Could shock tactics be the new frontier against Melbourne’s aggravated burglary avalanche as the city turns steadily into a version of Johannesburg?
Homeowners are increasingly resorting to elaborate security systems and, in some trouble-plagued locations, have clubbed together to pay for their own patrols.
Recently, one source tells us, there are murmurings about concerned citizens in affluent suburbs turning to another solution.
The word is they’ve been installing electric fences to zap the bad guys into rethinking their intentions.
The fences are frequently used in the metro area to secure factories from intruders and to deter possums from houses and gardens.
A couple of electric fence providers contacted by Deadline said they hadn’t formally been called in to provide home security yet and that much of their residential work was to deter marsupials, not malefactors.
Perhaps that was a carefully framed “political” answer because our source in the leafy east said their potential dual purpose was increasingly in the minds of residents who are installing electric fences.
“The added benefit is that they’ll keep intruders out,” he conceded.
Not that those wanting the extra peace of mind need to call in a contractor nowadays.
There is a wide choice for the home handyperson to buy and whack up around vulnerable sections of a property.
One man about town who’s also familiar with farm life said the fences would be effective if they were up to the same standard as livestock “hot wires”.
Those who’ve touched one would know the voltage might be enough to persuade a teenage thief to look elsewhere for a BMW to steal.
“They really give you a fair old jolt,” he said.
The reference to Johannesburg is not entirely fanciful. A former South African resident told Deadline this week heard that Melbourne’s wave of aggravated burglaries and car thefts and the state’s debt-ridden government increasingly reminds him of the dangerous place he left some years ago.
He suggests that the installation of “safe rooms” with instantly lockable sliding doors and shutters is no longer something that happens only in overseas trouble spots. Possums are the least of the problems some suburbs are facing.
But we do not suggest that the burglars and car thieves head up Echuca-Moama way looking for easier targets. People in the bush can be a little harder on vermin.
Gun shearer averts fleecing
Moama shearer, boxer and all-round hero Barry Clark has been offered free flights for life after dealing with an alleged gun-toting teenager on a Jetstar flight at Avalon Airport last week.
Barry seems like too humble a man to make a fuss but, if he wasn’t, he could almost demand his own personal jet for the money and trouble he’s saved somebody.
If things had turned out differently, the risk of colossal compensation payouts would have been huge.
As it turned out, it was a case of “a stitch in time saves 99.”
You don’t need to be a security expert to know it wasn’t just the passengers who might have dodged a bullet.
One legal high-flyer assures us that the security breach would have been a massive problem for whoever was responsible for keeping the place secure.
“They’d be potentially exposed. There’s been court actions launched for far less. There’s an expectation that there’s a duty of care for passengers and workers,” he said.
A security sector source told Deadline the 17-year-old must have walked 1km to get to the plane.
Apparently, a “fluoro” vest, tool-belt and a confident look were all the credentials he needed to march unimpeded to the aircraft. As we have noted before, a cheap and cheerful “high visibility” vest is all anyone needs to be invisible.
Thankfully, the actions of Barry and others averted what could easily have ended as a major tragedy.
Not that the tarmac teen is the only Avalon fence breacher, not by a long shot.
Geelong locals say it has been commonplace for years for passengers wanting to save a few shekels on airport parking to leave their cars outside the perimeter, get under or over a fence and head in. Whether that is airside is another matter, but a few seconds with wirecutters soon solved that issue for the alleged shotgun boy, apparently.
None of this is good news for a former hard-case detective in charge of the airport security who must have thought it was a nice little earner, right up until the shotgun incident.
This raises the question of a succession plan at Avalon. Would Barry Clark be willing to take on the security contract? He’s the sort of can-do type that Lindsay Fox likes to have around him, although not being an ex-cop would be unusual.
The art of self defence
There’s a fair chance that Mick Gatto’s dear old mum and Vincent Fantauzzo’s nonna spoke the same language at home, and would know the exact Italian idiom for Deadline’s favourite legal maxim: “Self defence is the best defence”.
It is, of course, the defence that Gatto made out so well in the drawn-out trial that followed the demise of the hitman Andrew “Benji” Veniamin in an intense one-on-one interview with Gatto in a narrow passage of a Carlton restaurant.
Gatto is known as a robust practitioner of “the sweet science”, otherwise known as boxing. Fantauzzo is an artist of another type but can apparently put his punches together pretty well, as revealed in recent days in the court case following a frightening home invasion of the St Kilda home that the successful portrait artist shares with his wife, actor Asher Keddie.
When an alleged thief broke into the home in December and attempted to steal Fantauzzo’s $40,000 Ducati motorbike, he possibly didn’t count on a brush with the angry artist.
Naturally, reports have stressed that the tea-leaf launched a savage attack on the worried home owner, father and husband, which he undoubtedly did.
This was a mistake, as being hit in the face reminded the painter of his time in the boxing gym and he switched into self defence mode with speed and purpose.
By the time Fantauzzo finished defending himself from the motorcycle fancier, the latter was reduced to spending many days in hospital.
Which, if he’s eventually proven guilty of anything or not, will teach him to be careful in that line of business. Purloining Ducatis might be a way of biting off more than you can chew, especially with no flipping teeth.
Attorney’s high water mark
We note Attorney-General Mark Dreyfus has spent another summer ploughing through the waters of Port Phillip Bay in open sea swimming events.
He’s a busy man but has obviously kept up his training load to the point where he managed a respectable 39 minute 32 second time in the Edithvale Club to Club event last month.
That put him 47 seconds ahead of respected former court sector communications advisor Kerry O’Shea, who powered in a couple of places behind over the 1.8km course.
The AG was the quiet man in the corner at one otherwise lively swimmers’ barbeque after the Pt Lonsdale event a few weeks ago. He has a few things on his plate apart from snags and salad.
Originally published as Deadline: Could this must-have in crime-ridden Johannesburg be coming to Melb’s leafy east?
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