By JESSE GRAHAM
IT was a New Year’s crime spree through Badger Creek that left power outages, smashed windows and burnt-out cars in its wake.
According to police, two Mooroolbark youths, aged 14 and 16 years, visited Healesville on 31 December to see one of the pair’s girlfriends, shortly before embarking on a night-long spree that caused around $100,000 in damage to the surrounding area.
The youths entered around 10 parked cars that were left unlocked around Badger Creek, stealing when they could and causing damage when they could not.
The teenagers stole a car and, throughout the night, smashed windows in at the Badger Creek Primary School, kicked in the door of the Badger Creek Old School and sprayed graffiti on the blackboard and burgled the nearby milk bar.
The coup de grace for the teenagers on the night was when they set fire to two cars, failing to light a third.
A delivery van and a mobile-home-type van were both completely destroyed, and the fire from the mobile-home van on Bluegum Avenue blew a gas tank inside the vehicle’s kitchen area.
The bottles exploded and the fire damaged overhead power-lines, leaving residents in surrounding area in the dark for around 18 hours.
Lilydale Police Senior Detective Ian Brown said the pair was arrested – the 16-year-old has been remanded in custody to appear at the Melbourne Children’s Court, while the 14-year-old has been bailed to appear at the Ringwood Children’s Court in February.
Detective Brown said that theycaused incredible amounts of damage over a short period of time, in what could only be called a “crime spree”.
“Where they couldn’t steal, they damaged,” he said.
“It was the same with the cars – if they didn’t steal anything, they burnt them.”
The youths have been charged with three counts of arson, burglary, criminal damage and a number of thefts from motor cars.
Detective Brown said the results weren’t final, but that the damage was expected to be somewhere around $100,000.
He remarked that the youths only attacked cars that were left unlocked, and said they tried around 100 doors throughout the evening.
“Some of the cars, they had tried to damage ignitions, but they haven’t forced entry to any of them,” Detective Brown said.
He urged all residents to keep their cars safely locked overnight or when not attended and to not leave valuables in sight or in vulnerable places.
Detective Brown said that he had recovered some stolen items from the teens and that anyone who thinks their car may have been robbed on the night should contact Lilydale Police on 9739 2300.
