Dream car turns into woman’s worst nightmare

A SMILING photo with her brand new car is all a Townsville woman has left of her pride and joy after it was stolen six days after she bought it.

Elliot Springs woman Imogen ( pictured) is the latest victim of relentless car thefts across the city, and was among eight people who had their cars stolen on Thursday night.

Her brand new Mazda MX-30 was used as a getaway car, spotted driving dangerously around the city and was still not recovered on Friday.

Her partner, Nick Thomason, said they were woken by police at their house about 2am asking if they realised the new car had been stolen.

Imogen purchased her shiny new Mazda just a week ago, and believed it to be the first one of its kind sold in Townsville since the model was released this year.

Mr Thomason said his girlfriend got home from work about 11pm and went straight to bed.

They didn’t hear a thing and there was no sign of forced entry into their home.

“We feel disgusted,” Mr Thomason said.

“One of our neighbours’ footage showed them having machete-like objects, too.”

The brand new car was spotted driving 90km/h in a North Ward street yesterday morning, before being a getaway car for thieves who pushed another stolen car into the Ross River.

Witnesses reported seeing a group of juveniles push a stolen Hyundai SUV into the river underneath the Nathan Street Bridge about 9.20am.

The group then fled in Imogen’s stolen Mazda before being spotted driving dangerously numerous more times yesterday.

Mr Thomason said their usually quiet neighbourhood hadn’t seen this type of crime in two years.

“(There’s been) a lot of shock and fear throughout the entire ordeal.”

Police are still looking for the Mazda.