By NOEL MURPHY
ICE-ADDICTED thieves are becoming bolder as a spate of daylight burglaries, aggravated burglaries and car thefts hits Geelong, according to police.
Ice junkies are targeting wealthier suburbs such as Newtown, offenders are becoming younger and crimes linked to users seeking quick cash for the highly-addictive drug are rising, police told the Independent yesterday.
Acting Detective Sergeant Anthony Henderson, of Geelong CIU burglary crew, said ice users as young as 15 had been involved in incidents involving soft targets such as elderly people in their homes at night.
Junkies were targetting jewellery, cash, computers and anything they could sell fast, he said.
“I wouldn’t say it’s confined to just your Newtowns – there’s been an increase in daytime burgs across the whole Geelong area,” Act Det Sgt Henderson said.
“They’ve been targeting Newtown but also Highton, for instance, especially for jewellery and it’s still continuing.
“It’s unbelievable, I’ve never seen anything like it. We’re getting a lot of people who previously had no criminal involvement comitting crimes — burgs, stealing cars, theft from cars to get money to purchase ice.
“A lot more youth are on it we’re finding. We did a night shift this week where there were three kids breaking into cars at three in the morning who’d never been in trouble before.
“They took a garage remote from an unlocked car in a driveway, broke into the house and stole the keys to $130,000 of cars – a Lexus and a Volvo.”
Act Det Sgt Henderson urged households to increase their vigilance and security.
He cited cases in which residents left back doors open, providing easy access for criminals casing homes from rear lanes.
Thieves entered an Aberdeen St home through a bathroom window in a brazen daylight robbery on Wednesday to steal jewellery, cash and devices, he said.
“Last week at Geelong West an elderly male victim was confronted by three offenders in his house at three in in morning – they were 15, 16 and 20 years old and that was after two earlier burglaries. Fortunately, they ran past him.”
Acting Det Sgt Henderson warned residents to lock their homes, be wary of unusual activity and to phone police on 000 immediately if concerned.
He cautioned the public against approaching suspicious characters, warning that ice users were potentially dangerous and increasingly bold.
