Teenage gangs, sexual assaults, and a string of robberies are leaving shop owners desperate and terrified at a shopping centre in Melbourne.
The wave of crime at Fountain Gate Westfield, in the city’s south-east, has prompted centre management to hire more security staff in an effort to regain control.
The army of security guards, dressed in cream coloured khakis and blue polo shirts, patrol the Narre Warren mall that has been dubbed the ‘most unsafe’ in Victoria.
The wave of crime at Fountain Gate Westfield, in Melbourne’s south-east, has prompted centre management to hire more security guards in an effort to regain control
In March two teenage girls (pictured) attacked a chicken shop worker and stole the days earnings of $5,000 in the middle of the shopping centre
Concerned business owners told The Cranbourne Leader last week that they are helpless to act when groups of up to a dozen teenagers storm their stores, damaging and stealing items.
Several retailers told the publication their stores had been ‘ransacked’ by gangs in recent weeks and a poll of 3000 locals found 74 per cent admitted they steered clear of the centre due to fears of violence.
‘They literally went through and flipped up all the tables and chairs and I was too scared to do anything as we were afraid of what will happen,’ one cafe worker said.
One woman said her 14-year-old son was attacked and mugged by a gang of six teenagers in the food court last month.
‘One of his friends was asked by the gang to hand over his jacket or he’d be stabbed. The boys were then told they would be bashed if they didn’t hand over all of their cash,’ she said.
In February 2016 a 14-year-old girl was sexually assaulted in a brazen daylight attack near the shopping centre.
In 2017 a woman was attacked with an axe in the salon she worked in and was rushed to hospital (pictured)
The mother was disappointed with how security and management had handled the incident, saying that security didn’t call to let her know what happened, and that police weren’t even notified about the incident by security.
On a Casey Crime Facebook page, a woman claimed that she was attacked by six teenage girls on April 20, while security watched.
Another woman claimed a lady smacked her six-year-old granddaughter across her face, and centre management and security didn’t do anything about it after she reported the incident to them.
A Fountain Gate worker said a bunch of teenagers are known to come into her store and try to distract staff in a bid to steal from the tip jar.
The troubling stories come after two teenage girls brutally bashed a chicken shop worker in a failed attempt to rob her of the day’s takings in front of stunned onlookers at the shopping centre last month.
Witness Brodie Rooker watched the bloody attack unfold and was left shaken
Police at the scene of the assault allegedly involving and axe at Fountain Gate Westfield
The shop worker had been holding $5,000 when she was attacked by the teenagers, who punched her in the back of her head and flung her to the floor, before continuing to kick her.
It’s understood she later required 13 stitches in her leg after she tripped on a vase.
In 2017, a mother-of-two who worked in a salon at the shopping centre was attacked by a 45-year-old man with an axe.
The woman was rushed to hospital and survived, however, the bloody incident left co-workers and bystanders extremely shaken.
The alleged attacker was charged with attempted murder.
‘She was just covered in blood, her face was absolutely covered in blood,’ witness, Brodie Rooker, told reporters.
Tamar Klein, a store assistant at Ted’s, saw two girls run out screaming from where the attack occurred.
‘One of them was screaming ‘had an axe!’ So we didn’t know what was going on,’ she said.
The alleged attacker was tackled to the ground by two security guards and later arrested.
The victim, aged in her 30s, is understood to have separated from her husband leading up to the attack.
Despite the continuing problems, police say they regularly patrol the precinct, and that they have a strong partnership with management.
‘Police from Narre Warren, Cranbourne and Endeavour Hills regularly patrol the shopping centre with more serious offences followed up by detectives from Casey crime investigation unit,’ Acting Inspector Dean Grande said.
Shaken workers are interviewed by police in the cordoned off crime scene at the shopping centre