A 49-YEAR-old man and two boys aged 15 and 16 have been arrested over nearly 90 property damage incidents involving marbles.
Police allege the man and two boys used a slingshot to catapult marbles into business windows in suburbs including Mentone, Bentleigh, Collingwood, Cremorne, Docklands, Richmond, South Yarra, and St Kilda.
Police say 87 victims have come forward, and the offending occurred between September and December. The total damage bill exceeds $1 million, police say.
On the morning of 13 December, police raided a home in Cheltenham. Inside they allegedly found a small cannabis crop, six firearms, four extendable batons, and four sling shots.
The 49-year-old man and two boys were arrested at the property. They were hit with a combined total of 274 charges including 258 counts of criminal damage, three counts of reckless conduct endangering serious injury, three counts of cultivate cannabis, three counts of traffick cannabis, and six counts of possessing prohibited weapons.
A 52-year-old woman was also arrested and released with intent to summons in relation to the cannabis crop, police say.
The man was bailed to appear in Melbourne Magistrates’ Court on Tuesday 19 December. The teenagers were bailed to appear in a children’s court at a later date.
First published in the Chelsea Mordialloc Mentone News – 20 December 2023