Carjacking victim speaks out after police arrest alleged carjackers

The 79-year-old man who had part of his ear slice cut off during an alleged carjacking piled praise on the police who got his prized LandCruiser back in less than 24 hours.

Col* from Westbrook is a tough old bloke.

He is bruised, battered and had to have part of ear sewn back on, but he is in good spirits and had nothing but praise for the police after they apprehended a man who allegedly assaulted him at the Charlton BP service station on Wednesday afternoon.

Police alleged Jonathan Leslie Yates approached Col as he was sitting in his Land Cruiser, pulled him from the vehicle and assaulted him.

Police allege Mr Yates stole the LandCrusier and took it on a cross country joy ride with the vehicle sighted at Roma, Warwick and Dalby before Mr Yates was arrested at Kogan on Thursday afternoon.

Mr Yates is one count each of armed robbery, stealing, evasion and dangerous operation of a vehicle arising from the alleged carjacking and is yet to enter a plea to the charges.

Speaking with the Chronicle, Col said he put up a fight.

The theft of a silver 2017 Toyota LandCruiser led to a cross country police chase.

“I have a few bruises and I am saw but I will get over that,” he said.

“But I cannot emphasise how good the police were from the moment it happened and at the police station later.

“They were incredibly helpful.”

Col and his daughter Peta* also thanked the dozens of members of the public who called in sightings of his distinctive silver LandCruiser after it was stolen.

This included an unknown number of truckies who shared information with police over their CB network.

Peta said this information allowed police to track the LandCruiser from a safe distance.

“The last thing we wanted was for a police officer or someone from the public to get her,” she said.

“The police said their plan was to let the ute go until it ran out of fuel and that’s what happened.”

This task was made all the more harder by some of the unique alteration Col made to his prized ride.

He bought the vehicle a few years back, after his wife passed away, and set it up so he could go fishing and camping for weeks at a time.

This included kitting it out so it could travel more than 700km on a fuel tank of fuel.

“Dad was preparing to go away on a trip next week and had just filled it to the max,” Peta said.

“It was ready to go and but we believe the police were able to get it back without too much damage.”

* Surname withheld for privacy reasons.