By GEORGIA WESTGARTH
ARMED with a smart phone, one Casey neighbourhood is fighting street crime, and it’s working.
‘Telegram Messenger’ is the app of choice used by the Evans Road, Lynbrook community who use the online noticeboard to keep track of suspicious behaviour.
Sarmuhabat Singh, who recently performed a citizen’s arrest, is one of the users, and told The News: “Anyone who sees something suspicious in the area can alert everyone on the app.”
“It keeps us aware and comes in handy to alert police of cars displaying false registration plates,” Mr Singh said.
More than 70 locals have signed up to be instantly notified by their neighbours and act as crime fighters themselves.
Recent figures revealed a rise in Casey’s criminal activity of more than 15 per cent on a per capita basis in the past year.
Much of such crime is attributed to youths committing car thefts, car-jacking, street robberies and home invasions.
But Mr Singh said the youth he caught on Saturday 25 was “harmless”.
“I caught him and held him- he didn’t fight back, he was begging me to let him go, he said he would pay me if I let him go,” Mr Singh said.
While out walking his dog on Saturday near Evans Road, Mr Singh and another neighbour noticed three boys about 14 years old, hovering behind houses with spray cans and what looked like petrol or oil, about 9pm.
Mr Singh later approached the trio in his car with his wife and chased them as they ran away.
The pursuit down Evans Road came to a halt when one boy splintered off toward the railway crossing and the other two hid in a bush.
“One of them ran out of the bush, and I caught him, my wife called the police,” Mr Singh said.
Police arrived at the scene within half an hour and managed to find the boy’s accomplice in the bushes.
Neighbours who were alerted to the citizen’s arrest via Telegram Messenger came to Mr Singh’s aid and successfully caught possible firebugs in the act.
The youths co-operated with police that night, however Mr Singh has not been notified of the outcome.
Hours later, on Sunday 26, Mr Singh reported a car parked on Evans Road near the railway crossing to police.
“It is a crime hot spot- it is suspicious because there’s no reason to park there,” he said.
“I noted the registration number and looked it up on Vic Roads, which said it belonged to a gold Nissan but the car was a red Honda hatchback.
“There were two people in the car.”
A red hatchback was sighted out the front of a Narre Warren home on Friday 24 June about 3.10am in Ormond Road, where thieves were disturbed during an aggravated burglary.
This Lynbrook neighbourhood has been using Telegram Messenger to fight crime for more than a year.
