Geelong’s craziest moments caught on camera in 2024
A food court brawl, a pilfered pot plant, election vandalism, man-on-magpie violence and even an exploding letter box. Some of Geelong’s craziest moments last year were caught on camera. SEE THE VIDEOS
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From an exploding letterbox and a pilfered pot plant to a local butcher defacing an election poster, some of the craziest moments in Geelong last year were captured on camera.
Last year, Geelong was enthralled by a bizarre home intruder known as the “night stalker”, whose creepy antics in the wee-small hours were well documented.
This year, there was no shortage of bizarre, odd, outrageous and surreal episodes documented on video, captured on celluloid or caught on tape.
With the ubiquity of mobile phones meaning everyone has a camera in their pocket, and more and more Geelong residents opting to install security cameras, it’s hardly surprising so many weird and wacky moments are forever immortalised.
The Geelong Addy has trawled the archives to compile this list of some of the best pieces of footage from the past year.
Bizarre video shows ugg boot-wearing thief steal pot plant
A thief wearing a helmet and ugg boots ripped a plant from a pot at the front a Geelong West nursery in bizarre scenes captured on camera.
The footage, released by Geelong police, shows the offender walk past Plant Addicts Anonymous on Pakington St just after 4am on July 5.
The thief spotted the monstera and, having taken a liking of the large plant, walked back to the shop front to pinch it.
They first attempted to rip it straight out of the terracotta pot, which is bolted to the front of the building.
When that didn’t work, they tried to break it away from a wooden stake in the pot, again with no success.
In a highly unusual move, they turned their back to the plant, shimmied into place as to get a firm grip on the stem, and then yanked it out of the pot.
They then walked away from the store with their illegally obtained plant.
Man repeatedly blew up elderly woman’s mailbox
A serial pest has allegedly used homemade explosives to repeatedly blow up an elderly St Leonards woman’s letterbox.
Judy Alexander said the letterbox had been the target of 15 separate attacks over a five to six-year period.
The masked man was caught on CCTV placing a glowing explosive device into the letterbox of her home late on April 1.
Ms Alexander said she heard a “big bang” and went to check the damage.
“I could see that the lid had flown off and I went out to check and see if the car was all right,” she said.
He can be seen running off down Old St Leonards Rd in the pouring rain moments before the small explosion.
Mystery man captured lurking, taking notes outside Geelong West home
A Geelong West man was left “shocked” after a mystery visitor was caught on camera lurking out the front of his property and writing in a notebook.
Ann St resident Danny Gasperini was surprised to wake up on New Year’s Eve with a notification from his e-doorbell alerting him to movement out the front of his home in the early hours of the morning.
“I was asleep at the time,” Mr Gasperini said.
“But there was someone else in the house who was having a phone conversation.”
CCTV footage captured the unknown man walking up Mr Gasperini’s front window before appearing to write in a notebook.
After standing for a while, the man appears to stare down the barrel of the doorbell’s camera.
“I thought the behaviour was extremely strange,” Mr Gasperini said.
Delivery driver’s ‘disgusting’ magpie act
Footage captured a delivery driver kicking a magpie after dropping off a package at a Grovedale home in October.
Stewart and Andrea McConachy were left disgusted after the incident was captured on their ring camera on the front door bell.
It showed the driver kicking the bird, which had flown from the top of a car to the front porch, as he dropped a package off.
Mr McConachy said the bird had been hanging around the front of their house for about a week.
“For any human to do that to a critter is disgusting, from my perspective it’s below humane,” he said.
It’s understood the driver worked for courier iMile and was delivering an order from Chinese online retailer Temu, with both companies set to probe the incident.
An iMile Delivery spokeswoman said the company had been informed of the incident and would be seeking further information to understand the full series of events leading to the moment captured on film.
Geelong butcher caught defacing council candidate’s poster
A well-known Geelong butcher was caught on camera defacing the posters of a council candidate just days before he hosted an event for her key rival during the election campaign.
A camera caught Siketa Meats’ Tony Siketa vandalising a sign promoting Hamlyn Heights candidate Angela Carr.
Mr Siketa was caught in a sting after the Socialist Alliance installed the camera on Hughes St when two other posters had been stolen and damaged.
The damage has been reported to Victoria Police and the Victorian Electoral Commission.
The complaint alleges that Mr Siketa removed, cut out, burned and graffitied Ms Carr’s election posters along the Hughes St shopping strip between September 18-25.
Speaking to the Geelong Advertiser, Mr Siketa admitted to what occurred in the video and said he regretted his actions but denied damaging any posters prior to the cameras’ installation.
Police later interviewed Mr Siketa regarding the batter, and he was expected to be charged on summons.
Road rage brawl in Geelong’s north caught on film
A wild road rage brawl erupted in the middle of one of Geelong’s busiest main roads in August.
Video shows two men throwing a flurry of punches on Melbourne Rd, near the intersection of Bacchus Marsh Rd, in Norlane in peak hour traffic.
A witness said the pair were both driving erratically before hopping out of their vehicles to exchange blows.
“They were cutting one another off near Bunnings, endangering other people’s lives,” she said.
Police were notified of the incident but a spokeswoman said no offence was reported and all parties had left the scene before officers arrived.
Man allegedly assaulted man in daylight chemist attack
In April, alarming footage captured the moment a knife-wielding man allegedly assaulted a man holding a child in a Torquay pharmacy.
In the footage, the man can allegedly be seen holding a large knife in his right hand as he kicks the man from behind.
Other customers also in the store can be seen running away following the incident.
Police allege the man caught in the footage was 44-year-old Travis Johnston, who fronted Geelong Magistrates Court over multiple alleged assaults in Torquay.
Johnston has been charged with offences including reckless conduct endangering serious injury, two counts of unlawful assault, intentionally causing injury, assault with a weapon and affray.
He will face a committal mention in the matter in February.
READ MORE.
Food court fracas in wild Westfield youth brawl
In January, video footage surfaced showing a chaotic brawl erupting in the food court of Westfield Shopping Centre.
The wild fracas, involving as many as eight teenagers, took place around 3pm on January 10.
Witnesses reported that a group of youths targeted another teenager who had been sitting down to eat.
The youth told his assailants he was “just trying to have lunch” before he started getting “hammered”.
One bystander, who wished to remain anonymous, said the incident was “pretty confronting.”
“I saw the whole thing start to finish, I was putting some stock away on the shelves and then I heard yelling and screaming,” he said at the time.
A shop owner told the Geelong Advertiser packs of disruptive youths were bad for business, and only growing more bold.
“They’re throwing food everywhere, they’re shoplifting, they’re going into Coles and stealing whipped cream and throwing it around the place,” she said.
Police arrested eight teens in connection with the incident. They were issued caution notices and later released.
Convenience store dust up in CBD
A shop owner was left bloodied after exchanging blows with a shirtless tradie during a brawl in the heart of the city in July.
Footage shows a man in a hi-vis shirt and work boots tangling with the owner of a convenience store on Ryrie St just before 2.30pm on July 23.
The tradie had allegedly became violent after staff at the store asked another customer for identification.
The man began shouting and swearing, and was asked to leave; he asked the shop owner to “step outside” and a brief fight ensued.
The Geelong Advertiser later identified the man as serial bad driver Brandon Juresko, who had lost his licence for years before he allegedly drove away from the Ryrie St dust up.
Juresko was slapped with the driving ban in 2023 after driving off when North Geelong man Benjanmin Norsworthy stepped out of his car and fatally hit his head in 2021.
Juresko pleaded guilty to charges of failing to render assistance, unlicensed driving, entering an intersection against a red light and affray, and lost his licence along with a nine-month community corrections order (CCO).
The Geelong Advertiser attempted to contact Juresko for comment in August but received no response.
The art of conversation in fish and chip brawl
Negotiation is more art than science, as two gentlemen in Norlane demonstrated in a display of its subtler nuances outside a fish and chip shop in August.
The chaps had a disagreement on their hands – believed to be over money – and it was their hands that did much of the talking.
What discussion was had was riddled with a number of profanities has forced this masthead to mute the video’s audio.
“You think I’m scared of you? No c*** is scared of you, Rob,” one of the men said.
“I’m not scared of you either,” the other man replied.
It’s not quite Shakespeare, but the men got their messages across just fine.
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Originally published as Geelong’s craziest moments caught on camera in 2024
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