After suspecting a group of young troublemakers from getting into a neighbor’s home, an Australian “supermum” took them on with her minivan.
On Friday morning, 48-year-old Natasha Baddock was heading for her kindergarten run when she saw a suspicious white hatchback “loitering” on her Bentley Park neighborhood in Cairns.
On her way home from school, she saw the identical automobile outside the home of a different neighbor, whose sliding door seemed to be “jimmied open.”
She turned to look at the four young passengers at that point and made the decision to “take a stance.”
She remained in her white minivan, blocking their hatchback on her neighbor’s driveway so they couldn’t go.
It was the same vehicle with the same four lads inside, Ms. Baddock said The Cairns Post. “They had been checking out the whole area.”
The gang of lads who “couldn’t have been older than 15” raced and crashed into her vehicle as she took up her phone to contact the police.
But Ms. Baddock resisted the urge to run away.
They had already damaged her automobile, so she added, “I simply placed the foot on the accelerator and I just drove that car backwards so they couldn’t drive off.”
The guys then fled on foot, abandoning the vehicle, as Ms. Baddock continued speaking with police on the phone.
She said, “I’m a very steadfast lady and I’m a foster mom to six kids; it is my obligation to defend them.”
The white Toyota Corolla hatchback was reported stolen a few days earlier on September 28, according to Queensland Police.
They pleaded for anybody who may have information to get in touch with the police.
Some people of Cairns are unsure whether they are in sunny north Queensland or the “ghetto” as a result of the current adolescent crime epidemic.
Sarah Martin, a Bentley Park resident who is a single mother, recently had two break-ins at her house and had her vehicle keys taken from her bedroom.
Police report that more than 900 automobiles have been stolen in Cairns in 2022, setting a new record.
Between September 24 and 25, a multi-agency police operation to combat adolescent crime recovered eight stolen automobiles and resulted in 17 individuals being charged with 113 offenses.
Locals are increasingly taking things into their own hands, such as anti-crime activist Paul Drabble who established a citizens squad in the form of the buddy system to aid in reducing crime.
It was about being “vigilant, not a vigilante,” he said.
Far North crime inspector Kevin Goan, however, pleaded with the populace to allow the police to carry out their duties because he didn’t want to see “any well-intentioned individuals prosecuted with a crime.”