CARJACKINGS sit atop a range of high profile offences being monitored by police in Mordialloc, Keysborough, Braeside, Carrum and Patterson Lakes, with crime statistics Victoria-wide showing the brazen thefts have shot up 80 per cent in the past year. Victoria Police launched Operation Cosmas in May to respond to the rise in aggravated burglaries and carjackings, with 60 people arrested state-wide since the operation began. Chief Commissioner Graham Ashton told ABC News that people were becoming concerned about gang-related activity and what he dubbed the “Grand Theft Auto generation”. In recent weeks, loose associations of young men possibly emanating from…
Author: Stephen Taylor
A SENIOR Frankston policeman says the 42 per cent rise in drug dealing reported in the recently released State Crime Statistics reflects better detection by officers. “We’re doing more to target dealers and remove illicit substances from the streets,” Acting Superintendent Simon Humphrey said. The rise in drug dealing is included in a 7.1 per cent jump in crime in Frankston in the past year. In the year to March, a record 15,286 offences were reported in Frankston compared to 14,271 the year before – up 1015 in the year. “Peninsula Health has seen a 20 per cent increase in…
CARJACKINGS are at the top of high profile crimes being targeted by police in Frankston, with crime statistics data Victoria-wide showing the brazen thefts have shot up 80 per cent in the past year. Three recent carjackings in Frankston – on Frankston-Flinders Rd, 30 October; in Bartlett St, Frankston South, 5 November, and in Ashley Av, Frankston, 15 June – highlight the dangers to motorists driving late at night. The government is believed to be working closely with police on tough new laws, with an offence of carjacking to target those stealing a car using force or putting a person…
THE heart-warming rescue of a dangling brush-tail possum in Chelsea Heights on Sunday morning has gladdened hearts around the world. The possum’s plight – and the good natured banding together of Amaroo Drive neighbours, the power company, and SES crew to save it – had been shared online by more than 14,500 viewers in the US, Spain, Germany, Italy, South America, the Philippines, and the UK, by Tuesday morning. “It could be the possum that reunites Europe,” quipped Chelsea SES’s Phil Wall, who said he certainly “couldn’t stand by and watch an animal suffer like that”. The female possum’s plight…
“IT takes a village to raise a child” is an old saying that still rings true for retiring Patterson River Secondary College principal Maree Vinocuroff. “I am concerned with challenges facing students, such a lack of connectedness with the community,” she said as she prepared for her departure this week. “If you take the school to be the village, it follows that structures and discipline are important features in the development of children. “When I was young we referred to adults as Mr and Mrs and relatives as aunty or uncle, whereas now they can call us anything they like.” …