Teenage girls have armed themselves with baseball bats to ‘take back’ a suburb that has been terrorised by armed youths as young as nine.
Uneque Murphy, 18, and her friend smashed the windows of a house in Maddington, in Perth’s southeast, and faced off with some of the residents.
The single mother said she was sick of local youths robbing houses, attacking people and vandalising homes while police weren’t doing enough.
Vigilante residents are fighting back against gangs of youths terrorising the Perth suburb of Maddington by robbing houses, attacking people and vandalising homes
Ms Murphy claimed the youths’ harassment of her mother had triggered 36 seizures and she was worried the next one could kill her.
‘They’ve tried hitting her with a scooter, a trolley, rocks and they verbally abuse her to her face,’ she told Daily Mail Australia.
‘It’s cruel, they say such cruel things to my mother and she really doesn’t deserve it. They just don’t like that she stands up to them.’
Ms Murphy said residents were ‘fed up’ with living in fear and it was time to fight back, even though police warned them about taking the law into their own hands.
‘They threaten us, they smash dozens of cars, some worth more than $40,000, threw two cartons of eggs at our house and bottles at my mum’s car,’ she said.
Uneque Murphy, 18, claimed the youths’ harassment of her mother had triggered 36 seizures and she was worried the next one could kill her
Ms Murphy and a friend smashed the windows of a house with baseball bats and faced off with some of the residents they say are robbing and intimidating locals
Ms Murphy said residents are ‘fed up’ with living in fear and it was time to fight back, even though police warned them off taking the law into their own hands
‘They forcibly make a old guy in the elderly units withdraw cash and try scare them as they are coming down to their cars.’
Videos posted online showed hooded youths patrolling the streets, looting homes of TVs and valuables, and even a nine-year-old boy throwing tiles at cars.
‘People are scared to even come out and water their grass, go to the shops, or catch the bus in case they get robbed or harassed,’ Ms Murphy said.
‘Things need to change and everyone was too scared to step up and show them that they can’t run all over us anymore! So we went to their house.’
The CCTV footage uploaded to Facebook showed the two girls facing off with the family including some of the children they claimed were responsible.
Ms Murphy claimed one of them was holding a machete but they didn’t start a fight.
‘So they got a couple of smashed windows. Karma’s a b***h. No more hiding behind closed doors,’ she said.
‘They do it because they are disrespectful and think they are invisible. But they aren’t.’
‘People are scared to even come out and water their grass, go to the shops, or catch the bus in case they get robbed or harassed,’ Ms Murphy said
‘Things need to change and everyone was too scared to step up and show them that they can’t run all over us anymore! So we went to their house,’ she said
Another resident, Nicole de Vincentis, said some of the illegal activity included ‘breaking into cars, breaking and entering, physical assaults, tearing up public property’.
‘There is basically no end to the relentless behaviour,’ she told Seven News last week.
Ms de Vincentis, who is not a vigilante, added that an elderly resident was recently attacked before being forced to an ATM where he withdrew his savings for the thugs.
‘The police are at their wits’ end. Their resources are being exhausted.’
The nine-year-old with a knife was filmed climbing on the roof of a house and and throwing tiles that smashed a car windscreen.
Another young boy, whose face was blurred to protect his identity, threatened to ‘smash the camera’ of a news crew, before laughing with his friends.
A girl uses a pram to make off with stolen goods in just one of dozens of incidents of youth crime terrorising Maddington
Police were unable to arrest the youngsters because many of them were below the age of criminal responsibility.
WA Police Commissioner Chris Dawson warned that vigilante action could result in criminal charges.
‘I strongly ask that people, despite their frustration, call police and not take the law into their own hands,’ he said.
‘I would simply ask for the neighbourhood to remain as calm as they can. The role of police is to enforce the law.’
Maddington has seen 326 cases of theft in the year to date, according to WA Police crime statistics.