An Indian-Australian family was left shaken after four buglers attacked their home in Caroline Springs in Melbourne’s west and stole two cars.
The alleged bandits who are described as teenagers of African appearance, allegedly targeted the home of Richa Walia, a restaurant owner, a little after 5 am on Saturday. She was at home with her parents and 16-year-old brother when the alleged robbers struck and stole a Honda CRV and a Civic besides a mobile phone.
The invaders jumped the side fence of the house and broke in by smashing the sliding glass door with a massive rock.
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Richa’s parents were sleeping in the ground floor bedroom, and they were the first to wake up hearing the noise.
The alleged offenders threatened the family and asked for the car keys which they family gave them.
“One of them picked up one of the car keys, the other one was coming upstairs and was screaming ‘give us the car keys.. give us the car keys,” said Richa Walia.
“My dad said take whatever you want... they were armed and if we retaliated, they would have certainly harmed us,” she added.
Richa says the incident has left her family very scared and shaken.
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“This is the third or fourth such incident in our neighbourhood in the last couple of weeks. But we never thought this could happen to us.”
She says the terrifying incident happened even while the Caroline Springs police station is barely a couple of hundred meters from their home.
“The police station is barely a couple of hundred meters, but it’s not 24-hour. I want it to be 24-hour,” she said.
Richa says the police took 20 minutes and two calls from her to arrive at the scene.
“It’s considered to be a good area. But the whole community is scared after these incidents. My parents have been in this country for the last 35 years, but they never experienced anything like this.”
While the incident has left the family terrified, there is a sense of relief that it did not result in any bodily harm to the family.
“My advice would be that you give whatever they ask for, because otherwise, they can harm you. Just make sure your family is safe. Things can be bought again but lives.”
