THE creepy clown phenomenon is concerning police, with their antics alarming motorists and passers-by. Reports of the clowns holding fake knives and cap guns and terrifying motorists along Frankston-Dandenong Rd, Carrum Downs, came to light Monday afternoon last week. The trio was said to be standing on the side of the road in full view of passing motorists. They ran off before police arrived. Senior Sergeant Kim Young, of Frankston police, said wearing a clown outfit was not necessarily against the law – it “has to be taken in context and depends on what they are doing”, she said. …
Author: Stephen Taylor
A BURNING car on the roof of a shopping centre, a deranged man holding a knife and two innocent people stabbed. That was the contrived scenario facing 75 first responders during a mock emergency exercise at Frankston’s Bayside Shopping Centre last week. Although it was only an exercise, it felt very real at the same time for participants including Frankston police, CFA, ambos – and a group of Monash University final year paramedic students who put their medical skills to good use coping with the carnage. Frankston police Sergeant Pat Hayes said the exercise was a vital training aid in…
A SMALL motorboat was badly damaged and another sunk in Mordialloc Creek near Pompei’s Landing on Sunday (9 October) when two huge cypress trees came down in wild winds. Chelsea SES’s Phil Wall said Kingston tree crews were called in to help remove the decades-old trees since they were so large. They were still down Tuesday morning. Also on Sunday, a large nature strip tree came down onto a vacant church on the corner of Lochiel Av and Clydebank Rd. “Because it was over the footpath we couldn’t take any chances and so down came the branch to make the…
FIRE crews from Edithvale, Springvale and Patterson River fought in vain to control a house fire in Aspendale Gardens, 12.30pm, Sunday. An elderly woman house sitting for her son managed to escape the fire at the two-storey brick veneer house in Reef Ct and raise the alarm. Edithvale Fire Brigade Captain Graham Fountain said the fire started in an external kitchen area while the woman was asleep and she woke to the smell of smoke. Flames were exacerbated by high winds and houses in the path of the smoke were evacuated by police. Captain Fountain said the damage bill was…
THE hiring of extra police announced last week is expected to go some way towards easing the perceived crime wave across Melbourne and the Mornington Peninsula – especially home invasions and carjackings. As reported in The Times last week, overall crime in Frankston has risen 12.5 per cent in the past financial year, while the Mornington Peninsula’s reported crime rate is up 9.6 per cent. In Frankston, sex offences increased by 70 per cent to 481, burglary and break-and-enter offences up 24.6 per cent to 1180, and drug dealing and trafficking almost 25 per cent to 242. On the Mornington…