An International Crime Ring !

It was probably inevitable, but Australia is becoming a victim of an international crime ring of young people who arrive here on study or tourist visas and carry out a well coordinated plan to rob affluent homes and steal high value goods from shopping centres.

The warning came from Canadian police and as a result New South Wales police pounced on members of a Chilean gang that is suspected of carrying out a crime spree in Victoria and Queensland, and who were posting the loot back to Chili in the mail.  A number of arrests have been made and several key gang members are still at large.

It is not hard to pick suburbs where affluent people live and now the information that people freely give on Facebook helps to fine tune targets.  What the bandits are after is expensive jewellery, cash, items like Rolex watches and high end clothing brands.  They are highly skilled at breaking into well secured homes and such well disciplined raids are over in minutes.

They also target high end clothing salons and police have disclosed the specialised nature of these raids.  Such expensive clothing usually has a security device attached which will sound a warning if it is taken out of the shop.  The bandits roll such items in a protective shield which isolates that warning device and allows them to innocently walk away with the goods.

These gangs comprise young people in their twenties and upward and often the thefts go unreported.  Often the victim is under the impression they must have mislaid a missing item because the thieves are very selective and leave little evidence of their visit.  It seems that wealthy people are rather careless in securing items of high value.

Commercial television is now carrying advertisements from the police warning that high end car theft has moved up a notch from the days of thieves hot wiring cars.  Not only are the pricier models now equipped with more sophisticated anti theft devices but the stolen cars are usually shipped off overseas and replacing a broken security device is expensive.   That irritating expense can be avoided if the owners key is used to facilitate the theft.

Once again it is not hard to identify likely targets.  The prestige of driving a very expensive car magnifies the risk, specially in two car families.  If the family are at an event in one car, the other is probably left at home and the key is somewhere in the house.  The police note an upsurge in break and enter crime where the sole purpose has been to gain the key and steal the car.

Alarmingly, that has now extended to specific break and enter when the owner is home and in bed asleep.  It is now not unusual for a thieve to enter a bedroom to secure the car key to facilitate the theft of a targeted car  needed to fulfil an overseas order.  In some cases, car colour is a specific on the thieves shopping list.

Clearly, crime is becoming more sophisticated and we need to elevate our defences a notch or two accordingly.