Thieves trash city store
A NEW city centre business has been left to pick up the pieces after thieves broke in and stole thousands of dollars’ worth of goods just days into a police crackdown on property crime.
Quick Fix Townsville staff arrived at the City Arcade store on Sunday morning to find smashed glass strewn across the floor.
Owner Dipika Chaundhary opened the store just months ago in November and said she estimates more than $15,000 worth of goods was taken, including the till, laptops and a number of phones.
Of most concern to Miss Chaundhary was the collection of repaired customer devices that the thieves stole.
“I want my customer phones back by hook or by crook,” she said. “If it was just my stock that is OK, I can deal with that later.
“My first concern is for customers’ devices, nobody does backups … there are memories … and now I have no clue whether I will get them back.”
She said CCTV captured within the centre showed the thieves break into the store twice on Saturday night.
A Queensland Police spokesman confirmed offi
cers were investigating the break-in, which occurred some time between 2pm on Saturday and 8.45am Sunday.
More than three hours after calling police on Sunday Miss Chaundhary was still waiting for crews to arrive to gather evidence before she
could clean up the mess and reopen the store.
She described Townsville’s crime problems as “frustrating” and said she expected better security inside a shopping centre.
“It is not acceptable the way crime is going on.” she
said. “How will people live in this community if there is no security for your cars, for your household stuff or this business in a shopping centre?”
Police launched Operation Uniform Nano last week as part of a crackdown on property crime after a spate of
high-profile incidents. On Friday officers had arrested just one teenager as part of the 10-day operation and charged the 16-year-old with 23 offences.
Police would not provide the Bulletin with an update on the operation on Sunday.