Holiday apartment trashed as African youths go on a rampage
Police cars were smashed and a two-bedroom North Melbourne rental property trashed at a party attended by up to 50 African youths.
Four police cars have been smashed and officers pelted with heavy objects by dozens of youths of African appearance at a wild party held at a short-term rental property in Melbourne.
Police responding to noise complaints from neighbours went to a property on Shands Lane in North Melbourne at 2am yesterday, arriving to find between 40 and 50 youths at the two-bedroom holiday rental apartment.
When officers asked the group to leave, it initially co-operated and began to vacate the house.
However, while police were in the front courtyard, rubbish bins and logs of wood were thrown over the fence at officers, forcing them to retreat indoors.
Minutes later the officers left the property to find four police cars parked on a nearby street had been stomped on, with the windscreens and mirror smashed and the panels dented.
Neighbours have described the youths as African in appearance. No officers were injured during the incident, and as of last night no one had been arrested or taken into custody.
Police are appealing for anyone who witnessed or has CCTV footage of the offenders damaging the cars to come forward, as no officers saw it occur.
“It’s outrageous, it’s criminal behaviour and it’s not something that we tolerate,” Senior Sergeant Adam Tanner said yesterday.
“To put it bluntly it makes me angry and I think it makes a lot of people angry.”
He said a TV and microwave had been stolen, and walls and furniture had been damaged.
Groups of youths were still at the property yesterday morning, and several were interviewed by police as they left.
Neighbours described the event as similar to a “high school party” and said the offenders were very young. “There were 40 people or more,” one neighbour who did not want to be identified told The Australian
“They obviously had no respect for the police ... they were screaming and screaming.” He said the cars were “completely smashed” and had to be towed away.
Another neighbour who lives next door told Channel 7 News they saw police enter the property and ask the group to leave.
“They were yelling back at them, ‘You can’t come in, get a warrant’ ... eventually the cops waited for about 15 minutes then eventually they just opened the gate themselves, knocked on the door, and yelled at everyone to leave,” he said. “From what I saw most people did start to leave, mostly in single file. Then the cops were pushing some of them, pushed one of them, a young boy.
‘‘You could see he walked straight out and there was some wood in the laneway, and our bin, and started throwing it over the fence. A block of wood hit a cop.”
It is the second rowdy party at the property in a fortnight. The last party, on April 15, saw police attend the property and request the group to turn down the music.
The two bedroom property, which was sold for more than $1m at the end of last year, is listed in a number of holiday rental sites as a “four-star apartment”, and has a policy of refusing certain bookings if they are being rented for parties of groups events.
Resident Meg Moorhouse said she had been in touch with Roomerang, a company that helps manage short stays for property owners, to try to get them to stop allowing the property to be booked for just one night.
“It’s gone from annoying to frightening,” she said.
“It’s certainly a concern that they are seeking out these properties for this kind of event and I think the industry itself would be concerned about that use.”
A spokesman from Roomerang did not comment yesterday on which online platform had been used to book the property. Australian Securities & Investments Commission documents show the property is owned by a man who lives in Singapore.
Residents say they will continue to petition for change.
“They just care about the increased income from one-night stands,” said resident Gordon White. “It’s causing a lot of people a lot of grief.”
Women egged in anti-Semitic attack at Bondi Beach
Three men allegedly set upon a number of women on Saturday night in Sydney's east, throwing eggs at them, with police believing they were targeted because of the clothes they were wearing.
Nation ‘must not go down road’ of faith-based parties: PM
Parties founded on religion would undermine social cohesion, according to Anthony Albanese, as he reminded rogue senator Fatima Payman that she owed her election to Labor pre-selection.