Angelo Justus recalls terrifying Bulimba carjacking with axe and shovel

A man who was threatened with an axe and a shovel in a horrifying carjacking outside his Bulimba home has described the terrifying moment a car carrying five “angry” men blocked his car from leaving his own driveway. VIDEO

A man who was threatened with an axe and a shovel in a horrifying car jacking outside his Bulimba home has recalled the incident, saying he was terrified he would be attacked.

Angelo Justus said he was loading his car with clothes to take them to a charity bin on Sunday afternoon when he was stopped by two people as he reversed out of his driveway.

The men came from a car which had blocked his driveway, with three others remaining in that vehicle.

The men took off with Mr Justus’s Audi but it was found shortly after on a street in Stones Corner but his keys, which included keys to his home, have not been found.

Mr Justus said the ordeal had left his daughter “petrified”.

Angelo Justus was the victim of a car jacking on Sunday afternoon on Harrison Street in Bulimba. Picture: Steve Pohlner

“I got in the car, and started reversing. I could see a car go by so I was mindful so I wanted to go slow,” he recalled of the incident.

“All of a sudden there was ‘bang bang’. I thought I inadvertently backed too far and made a mistake that’s why they were angry at me.

“I put my windows down that’s when I realised they had weapons.”

Mr Justus said one had an axe and the other was wielding a shovel and that the two were wearing balaclavas.

A CCTV still shows the vehicle being taken after the carjacking.

He said they were screaming profanities at him as they demanded he hand over the keys.

“It was menacing. They were waving (weapons) around. There was one here holding the shovel as if he was going to hit me, the other one wasn’t so focused on me,” he said.

“He was more focused on getting the car.

“My main worry as they were backing off was that they were going to hit me because they looked menacing.”

Eventually the two sped off with the car and his phone with the other car which had been blocking his driveway also taking off in the same direction.

No arrests have been made.

Mr Justus said he never would have thought it would happen in broad daylight.

“It is terrifying, on the community pages (on social media) you do see some random petty crimes especially at night but I wouldn’t have thought they would be so brazen to do it in broad daylight at 2.15pm with weapons,” he said.

Harrison Street Bulimba. Picture: Steve Pohlner

“We have heard of break-ins, at least two or three break-ins – two houses down, there has been an instance where a lot of cars were broken into but ours were spared.

“But it was a shock. I’m still coming to terms with it.”

But one thing still plays on his mind.

“Even though they have found the car, they haven’t found the keys so they do potentially have access to the car door and the garage,” he said.

“I am still scared. Potentially, the main worry is they can still come back.

“I hope this is a random attack.”

Angelo Justus said the carjackers were menacing. Picture: Steve Pohlner

Mr Justus said the incident had affected his sleep and his family.

“I had a bad night’s sleep. You always ponder what could’ve happened if it didn’t go the way it did,” he said.

“Even though my little one wasn’t in the car which normally she is in on the weekends and the wife wasn’t there. They would’ve been scarred for life, my daughter wouldn’t even go upstairs yesterday after all this.

“I can already see my daughter is petrified.”

Mr Justus said the incident was so brazen and scary but if nothing was done, other people would get hurt.

“Even though community pages keep saying this area is hot and there’s a lot of crime, I don’t feel we are seeing more police patrol. I feel like it’s more reactive rather than looking at the bigger picture,” he said.

Since the incident Mr Justus says he has taken precautions on security by broadening camera coverage, installing extra door sensors and getting an automated siren on the driveway.

Speaking about the Bulimba carjacking on Monday, Detective Inspector Paul Dalton said ‘thugs’ were making life hell. Picture: Nigel Hallett

Detective Inspector Paul Dalton said “thugs” were making life hell for members of the public who had a right to be safe in their own driveways.

“It’s horrifying … members of the public should be able to go about their lawful business anytime in any way they wish to do so, not be approached by these sort of thugs. It’s outrageous,” he said.

“We always do have a pool of suspects … we are confident of progressing this matter further.”

Detective Dalton said police would “hunt” down the offenders to keep the community safe.

“I shouldn’t have to give anyone a message. You should be able to do that without fear of anyone stealing your car.

“We are out there, we aren’t investigating these things. We are trying to prevent them as much as we can. And we have a whole range of prevention programs in place.

“Unfortunately, they don’t work for every offender in our system. For those ones, I make no apology. We’ll go after you and we’ll hunt you and we’ll make sure the full force of the law is thrown at you to keep the rest of the community safe.”

The Bulimba incident was one of two alleged carjackings in the state’s southeast as many days, although the two are not believed to be related.

Eight teenagers, one as young as 13 years, are in custody after allegedly dragging a 50-year-old Gold Coast woman from her car and assaulting her before stealing the vehicle over the weekend.

The teenagers, aged between 13 and 17 years, were arrested in Inala after being spotted by POLAIR following the incident which occurred at 4am Sunday.

The stolen car was spotted in Logan at 3.50pm Sunday and tracked to Richlands train station where five people got out of the car and arrests were made.

The car was seen again at an Inala house where two others were taken into custody.

Police finally stopped the car using tyre spikes at 5pm Sunday on Hilcrest’s Johnson Road. It was dumped on Woodridge’s Lawson Street where another arrest was made.

No charges had been laid as of Monday afternoon.

Originally published as Angelo Justus recalls terrifying Bulimba carjacking with axe and shovel