General News
29 April, 2025
Car thieves on the run after a spate on incidents
Police have yet to lay charges after four vehicles were stolen in Mount Isa over the long weekend.
Police have yet to make an arrest following a string of vehicle thefts across Mount Isa over the Anzac Day long weekend.
Three vehicles were stolen from three tourist parks in the early hours of Saturday, while another car was also stolen over the weekend.
All vehicles have since been recovered but, at the time of writing, police were yet to arrest any of the culprits, despite pursuing some of the vehicles for prolonged periods.
Officer in charge of Mount Isa Police Station, Acting Inspector Adrian Rieck, did not respond to calls from North West Weekly.
Tradesman Sam Jacobs was among those whose vehicle was stolen on Saturday morning.
The roof plumber had only arrived in Mount Isa a few days earlier with his partner Mikaela to work on the new aeromedical complex at the airport.
Mr Jacobs said he was asleep in his caravan when he heard the engine of his Toyota HiLux start just after 3.30am.
He said he raced out of the caravan to see his ute reversing beside another vehicle before the vehicles met up with a third car at the entrance of the tourist park. All three vehicles then sped away in a convoy.
Mr Jacobs immediately borrowed another vehicle and gave chase, locating the offenders first at the Overlander Hotel car park and a second time along Marian Street. The tradie said police were also in pursuit during this time and repeatedly told him to abandon his chase.
“These stolen cars were just roaring through stop signs and traffic lights and down back alleys, so I really had no choice but to back off,” he said.
Mr Jacobs eventually returned to the caravan park and lodged a police report before his vehicle was found in the car park of the Townview Motel just before noon.
Police had eventually contacted Toyota to access an internal smart app that revealed the location of the vehicle.
Mr Jacobs said CCTV footage showed the offenders had abandoned his vehicle at 5am.
He said his wallet and contents from his partner’s handbag had also been stolen.
There were paint scrapes down the side of his vehicle.
Fortunately for the tradesman, thousands of dollars in tools and equipment were still there when his HiLux was found.
Mr Jacobs said he had been travelling around Australia for more than 18 months, and he believed there was a widespread perception that Mount Isa had a high crime rate.
“When I told my friends and family that I was coming to work in Mount Isa, they kept saying to be careful because you’ll get your car broken into and stuff stolen,” he said.
“And that’s exactly what has happened.
“This is a great town, and everyone here has been really great, but I think the city is going to struggle to get workers and visitors to come here if stuff like this keeps happening.”
Mr Jacobs said his car keys were missing from the recovered vehicle, which meant he was concerned the offenders would return the following night to attempt to steal it again.
He said police had informed him to disconnect the car battery and remove the spark plugs to secure his vehicle at night.
“The police said the kids who are doing these crimes have clued on to people unhooking their car batteries, and so they were telling people to also pull out the spark plugs,” he said.
“It’s a bit of a job to have to pull out all your spark plugs to keep your car safe every night.”
North West Weekly spoke to several business owners affected by the weekend crime spree.
The tourism park operators, who asked not to be identified, expressed frustration at the lack of results from various programs aimed at tackling youth crime.
“The government and police keep telling us there has been all this progress in battling crime but where are the actual results? There doesn’t seem to be any real results,” one operator said.
“This keeps happening in Mount Isa and we are being told we have to pay for extra security measures,” another said.
“There is all this taxpayer money being spent on working with these young criminals.
“Where is the support for businesses that are being impacted by the crime?”
Member for Traeger Robbie Katter said the sporadic outbreaks of intense criminal activity in the city appeared to coincide with the release of young offenders from detention.
“It shows the current sentencing arrangements are not working,” he said.