A teenage bandit took police on a high-speed chase after stealing a luxury car only days after he was granted bail.
The serial offender forced police to bring out the big guns – helicopter PolAir One – as he evaded capture and sped dangerously across a motorway in southeast Queensland on Monday.
Dramatic air footage shows the 17-year-old crook collide with another car on a highway in Daisy Hill, before abandoning the vehicle and leading police on a gruelling foot-chase across the busy roads, Seven News reports.
A teenage bandit took police on a high-speed chase after stealing a luxury car (pictured in black) only days after he was granted bail
Dramatic air footage shows the 17-year-old (pictured) collide with another car on a highway in Daisy Hill, before abandoning the vehicle and leading police on a gruelling foot-chase across the busy roads
Queensland Police lost the wanted teenager momentarily before he reappeared on PolAir cameras sitting perilously close to the edge of a highway sound barrier.
Officers finally caught up with him on the side of the motorway and he surrendered without resistance.
The teen, who was well known to police, had only been released on bail last Friday for similar theft offences.
He was remanded in custody and is expected to be charged at a later time.
‘It is pretty frustrating to deal with these same people over and over again,’ said Detective Superintendent Tony Fleming.
Precincts across southeast Queensland have banded together to help put an end to the growing property crime wave in the district.
Police have warned the repeat offenders are ‘random’ groups of thieves ranging from 10-year-olds to adults and are often on a cocktail of drugs.
‘They have no respect for anyone, they will break into houses, they will steal cars,’ Det Supt Fleming added.
In some Brisbane suburbs, there have been up to 20 reported break-ins per day.
The newly forged team of police – known as Operation Assurance – has already made hundreds of arrests and will remain focused on cutting the crime wave at the roots until March 2018.
Officers finally caught up with him on the side of the motorway and he surrendered without resistance (pictured)
In the first 28 days of the operation, police charged 329 people with 1,388 offences – the vast majority of them burglary and property offences.
‘We aren’t letting police district borders get in the way of tracking down and charging offenders that are travelling the length and breadth of the south-east committing burglaries, stealing cars and breaking into homes,’ Acting Detective Inspector Bryan Swift said in October.
‘Right now Operation Assurance investigators are focusing on high-risk offenders who have been stealing vehicles across south-east Queensland and then using those vehicles to commit burglaries and other serious crimes.