Teen’s many attacks
A TEENAGER has been arrested after vandalising an ambulance and breaking into multiple cars on Palm Island, leaving a paramedic feeling “helpless” about what happened to his van.
A 15-year-old Palm Island teenager was taken into custody on Monday after a resident busted him trying to break into another car and grabbed him, holding him until police arrived.
Palm Island officer-incharge Senior Sergeant Dave Rutherford said the teenager had been involved in five car break-ins about dawn on
Monday. He smashed the windows of four of the cars, but stole just one can of deodorant.
The teenager also smashed the window of an ambulance, which was parked in a yard, and let off a fire extinguisher inside the four-wheel-drive vehicle.
Queensland Ambulance Service worker Gerald Wotton said he came back from some days off to find the ambulance vandalised.
“One of our fire extinguishers sprayed right throughout the ambulance, which is a harmful chemical … it was to the point where I had to put on a chemical hazard suit just to
Queensland Ambulance Service worker Gerald Wotton had to put on a hazard suit to deal with the vandalised ambulance.
drive it to the barge to go back to Townsville as it is so bad we can no longer use it,” he wrote on a social media post.
“It’s just getting to (sic) out of hand … it’s our own kids of Palm Island doing this to there (sic) own community.
“We gotta understand, now if one of your or my family members was really sick and needed the ambulance urgently, then there’s no ambulances.”
A Palm Island resident caught the boy in the act, and
detained him until police arrived to take him into custody.
He has been charged with multiple offences, including enter premise with intent to commit an indictable offence, and other charges for more acts of vandalism at the week
end. Sergeant Rutherford said that the teenager had also been wanted for setting a bin on fire, and for throwing rocks at police officers and a police car on Saturday.
The boy will face court over the charges this week.