‘We’ll go after you and we’ll hunt you’

CCTV captures a stolen car driving along Harrison St, Bulimba, before a resident’s vehicle is carjacked as he is about to reverse out of his driveway.

Motorists are on alert after two frightening carjackings in a 24-hour period in south east Queensland, with a woman on the Gold Coast dragged from her car and assaulted, while a man in the leafy suburb of Bulimba was threatened with an axe as thieves stole his car.

A detective warned on Monday carjackings were “unfortunately” not uncommon, with a lot of young offenders targeting owners of expensive cars in affluent suburbs through sneak offences.

And the latest Queensland Police data shows car thefts are up 18 per cent across the state, and have more than doubled in some regions over the past 12 months from May 2022 to April this year.

South Brisbane Child Protection Investigation Unit Detective Inspector Paul Dalton said the motives of the carjackers varied.

“There’s no rhyme or reason, I know some offenders like to hang on (to the cars) for a while and drive them around. Others don’t. Just depends on what their motive is,” Inspector Dalton said.

“It’s horrifying… members of the public should be able to go about their lawful business anytime in any way they wish to do so, not be approached by these sort of thugs. It’s outrageous.”

According to police data, South Brisbane police district recorded the highest number of car thefts with more than 3000 in the last year – 671 more offences than the previous period between May 2021 and April 2022.

Offences in Mount Isa and South West districts doubled in the last year, while Mackay, Moreton and Gold Coast recorded only slight increases in offences.

Affluent suburbs like Bulimba have also been targeted, after a man was threatened with a machete and a shovel by a group of teens for his Audi on Sunday.

Inspector Dalton said police would “hunt” down the offenders to keep the community safe.

“We are out there, we are investigating these things,” he said.

“We are trying to prevent them as much as we can. And we have a whole range of prevention programs in place.

“Unfortunately, they don’t work for every offender in our system.

“For those ones, I make no apology. We’ll go after you and we’ll hunt you and we’ll make sure the full force of the law is thrown at you to keep the rest of the community safe.”

Also on Sunday, 50-year-old Gold Coast woman Yoko Abe was dragged from her car by eight teenagers, one as young as 13, in a horrific carjacking.

Ms Abe says she was punched and kicked during the ordeal in the middle of an intersection, which left her in hospital.

All eight teenagers were arrested in Inala.

Gold Coast police Superintendent Rhys Wildman said carjackings were “extremely rare” but to have such a violent one happen was a major concern.

“We haven’t had something like this occur on the Gold Coast, certainly in any recent time, that I’m aware of,” he said.

“(But) it’s obviously extremely concerning from a police perspective.

“Certainly for the public, if you’re driving a vehicle and are involved in either a road rage incident or some traffic incident where you do have public safety concerns, make sure you keep your doors locked and ring triple-0 straight away.

“Maintaining public safety is paramount and we will make sure we get police to you.”

Further north in Townsville, a 40-year-old Bushland Beach man was threatened with a gun when he tried to stop a teen from stealing his dad’s Mercedes.

He caught the intruders as they were attempting to pry the garage door open and ran over, when one of them held a gun up to him and said: “let the f–king car go, or I’m gonna shoot you.”

Former veteran police detective turned Bond University criminologist, Terry Goldsworthy, said the recent spate of carjackings was “no surprise” because young offenders were becoming increasingly brazen.

“We’re seeing youth offenders prepared to commit more audacious crimes and it’s very concerning, because there’s a real risk of harm to not only property but to members of the public,” he said.

Dr Goldsworthy said it was difficult to establish if carjackings were increasing because they may be hidden in police statistics for car theft and robbery.

“Juvenile offending has increased from 16 per cent to 18 per cent of all offending but they’re responsible for more than 50 per cent of all robberies and unlawful use of a motor vehicle (car stealing) offences,” he said.

RACQ spokeswoman Ashleigh Paterson said the organisation had received almost 900 insurance claims for car theft across Queensland in the last six months alone.

Cairns and Toowoomba recorded more than 80 per cent increases in the number of claims made last financial year compared to the previous.

“We’ve seen a fairly significant increase in car thefts across Queensland over the past few years,” Ms Paterson said.

“As vehicle security improves, the easiest way to steal a car is to use the keys, so drivers need to be extra mindful about where they store their keys.”