Cooper Pugh shares anger over police response after Mermaid Beach robbery

A Gold Coast man burgled of $20,000 worth of stuff has stumbled across the culprits, walking around in his clothes nearby. FULL DETAILS

A MERMAID Beach man says he begged police for help to recover thousands of dollars worth of goods stolen from his home – but an officer told him they were too busy to attend.

Cooper Pugh, 28, quickly located the goods using a tracking device not long after the Venice St house he shares with two flatmates was broken into at about 8pm on Saturday. He had been out watching a movie with his partner at Pacific Fair at the time, while his roommates were away for the long weekend.

“We came back and they’d cleaned out my room and both the roommates’ (room). They’d stolen some of her stuff (his partner) that she brought over too,” Mr Pugh said.

“... They stole probably 15 to 20 thousand dollars worth of stuff I’d say. They took laptops, airpods, two ipads, a Canon camera, a whole bunch of jewellery, shoes, bags. They even took a jar of change.

“They broke in through a window. Our neighbours were still watching TV next door, never heard anything.”

Cooper Pugh, who was the victim of a burglary at his Mermaid Beach home.

Mr Pugh said a tracking feature in one of the stolen items allowed him to quickly see that it was in a car parked nearby.

“We got the tracking information around 9.30 and it was five streets down at an apartment building,” Mr Pugh said.

“So we’ve pulled up out the front. We notified the police about the initial robbery. We notified them again that we’d found where they (the thieves) were. They were in a carpark. We could have pinpointed it to within two or three cars. It was in the boot of someone’s car.

“The police said they would come. We waited for hours. No one came.”

Mr Pugh said he was even able to identify one of the perpetrators – because the thief was wearing an expensive pair of shoes which were among the items stolen.

However it led to a frightening encounter for himself and his partner.

“We saw a guy looking sketchy walking down the street, and I noticed he was wearing my shoes that he stole,” Mr Pugh said.

“They’re Vans Half Cabs, a specific print collab with a skate brand. He was wearing them. They’re very distinct, there was no mistaking them. It’s not a generic shoe.

“We chased him down the street. He’s run off.

“We called the police again to say we’ve found the guy, we’ve got a visual. Then he comes back with a friend. And we’re waiting out the front of the apartments to make sure no cars leave. A friend and him come and do a really slow drive by. Really scary looking guys. They’re both mid-forties.

“So then we decided to leave and that car pulls around, does a ‘uey’, tries to chase us.

“The police said they were coming, we never got a call. They said they would call us if they couldn’t find us. We didn’t get a call all night.”

Mr Pugh said he called police about a dozen times but no officers came to assist.

Mr Pugh said he even flagged down an officer on the street and explained the situation. However the officer said he was unable to help, saying that it was a “really busy night” and Mr Pugh was “in the queue”.

“The most frustrating thing is that we’d been tracking it all night,” he said. “No police assistance whatsoever. Twenty thousand worth of goods and no care. If it was a brick through the Gucci shop at Pac Fair and same value in bags were stolen every unit available would be there.”

Mr Pugh now fears the opportunity to recover the stolen goods has passed.

“We called them (police) nine times through the night, giving them updates,” he said.

“We could have had them last night, but we couldn’t get a car out.

“And now all of our stuff is on the move and going, when we had it pinpointed to a very specific location.

“... I’m more upset with the police performance (than the thieves) to be honest. Criminals are criminals.

“The fact that they instructed us to wait out the front of where the perpetrator was for a squad car that never came. We nearly got into an altercation with them.”

In a statement to the Bulletin police said they had been unable to attend due to “operational demand” on the night.

“Police are investigating the burglary of a Venice St, Mermaid Beach address on October 1 between 6.15pm-9.15pm where a number of personal items were taken from the property,” a QPS spokesperson said.

“Following the initial report, police were contacted by the victim twice to report further information and inquiries were logged.

“Due to operational demand, police were unable to attend the scene, however an active investigation remains in place.”

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Originally published as Cooper Pugh shares anger over police response after Mermaid Beach robbery