Help from the 4x4 community in Melbourne - Stolen Landcruiser Ute

Cheers Fred. All been done. We'll keep our fingers crossed. Not so much the monetary aspect of the vehicle just trhe hundreds and hundreds of hours he's spent learning and fixing. Very disappointing.

All the best to you and yours. May see you around a campfire in 2016.

Cheers

Not so sure about that, possibly an either or!

If it is in a driveway perhaps a call to Crimestoppers…but

If a crime is happening (time-critical) call Triple 000 and ask for the police – and I guess if you spot Mick’s sons vehicle out and about on the road then a crime is happening!

At midnight, a couple of years ago, someone was hooking up my neighbour’s caravan and driving off with it. I followed them in my car called Triple 000 (time-critical), they put me straight through to the police and onto the local police station who told me to follow at a safe distance whilst they mobilised, quick action had the offenders caught red-handed…

No roasting received, offenders caught and locked-up after successfully being prosecuted for this crime and a number of others, caravan returned…!

But please don’t take my word for it, I’ve been known to be wrong – but here is some detail from the ACMA…



Cheers, Baz – The Landy

I have called 000 on two occasions only one was a actual emergency the other was just for some livestock on the road at night , instead of asking for police , l said can l ask a question answer was , yes sure , told the bloke on the other end , l then asked if l done the right thing , he said yes you have .

Gday
Mick has broad shoulders and can take the backlash from OOO .
Sorry to hear that Mick, hope all goes well to a safe return.

Hmmmm,,"threat to life, property or time critical"

Would telling the operator that you just caught some low life trying to steal your car, you have him "restrained', and if they don't get a copper to your location in 10 minutes or less you are going to beat him to an unrecognisable pulp, cover any or all of those criteria??

Cheers
Pop

Pop, yep, that's a good line - but unfortunately, catching car thieves in the act is a real risk unless you outnumber them.
Seen too many good blokes go down when they tried, and the scumbags produced screwdrivers, knives, lumps of timber, and associates that were in hiding.
Had a mate who was 6' 4" (193cm) and a rugby player, so you can guess his build.
He heard the window of his wifes Beemer (parked in the driveway right next to the house) being smashed at 2:00AM and got up to see what was going on, only to see two hoods breaking into it.
He ran outside, grabbed the two by the hair, ready to bang their heads together - when everything went black.
He woke up 15 mins later, concussed and bleeding, thanks to 2 other hoods hiding in the bushes behind him, who laid him out with a lump of 75x50 timber!
The Beemer was gone and he had to nurse a sore head for a week to add to his woes.
The cops found the Beemer about 10 days later, burnt out.
He's not so keen about being gung-ho about tackling car thieves today.
I caught 6 hoods breaking into a car at the beach about 12 years ago, in broad daylight, with lots of people around, and tried sneaking up on them.
They spotted me and jumped in the stolen Commodore and screamed out of the carpark at 60kmh, narrowly missing people.
I thought about it afterwards and think it was probably lucky I didn't grab them - it could have turned out very nasty indeed, as I know at least one had a big screwdriver, and his mate probably had one, too.

Cheers, Ron.

Ron, no roasting here in Victoria as 000 is the only number to call for police and emergency service attendance REGARDLESS of circumstance.

Unfortunately Victoria does not have a direct police advice line for reports on minor/non-urgent or administrative nature.

Triple 000 calls are triaged twice with time critical/urgent matters being assessed and forwarded to CAD operators for assignment to an operational police unit. CAD operators still deal with ALL police related matters although they may provide advice for you to attend the local police station or they will assign the call to a station and they will ring you.

I won't go into all the details around maintaining personal safety by tackling crooks yourself, that's the coppers job and why you call 000. Victoria's current anti-theft strategies rely on quick notification so they can preserve any evidence left in/with a vehicle and to ensure that the damn things doesn't get stolen again in the interim (offender may have only parked it and still be using it).

Something for you to be aware of when travelling down here in Victoria should you need police or emergency services.

The whole point of the post is to get the information out there and hope that people will share it with their networks, 4x4 clubs and friends or to keep an eye out while travelling in the bush and high country over Xmas New Years. While it's insured, that's poor consolation for a young bloke who's slaved his guts out across weekends and school holidays since he was 14 to save and pay for his dream vehicle (Pulling tyres out of shipping containers in the 40C heat of summer is only something a young bloke could do ;-) and then spent hours teaching himself the mechanical skills to work on his car. Something I'm extremely proud of and which makes this all the more disappointing for us as a family.

Cheers and all the best to you for Xmas and the New Year.

Mick

Thanks, Mick - I didn't know that in Victoria, unlike other states, 000 is the only number to call for all urgent help.
In W.A., we had a big ad campaign to stop people unnecessarily calling 000, because of the huge number of idiot calls to 000, that was overwhelming the service and blocking important emergency calls.
We had idiots calling 000 because their cat was stuck in tree, or even worse, wanting to know where the nearest Hungry Jacks was.
So the ad campaign was aimed at redirecting "non-urgent" calls to 131444.

Now, the W.A. system is a shambles anyway, as a call to WAPOL on 131444 promptly goes to a "press 1, if you want - press 2, if you want" - etc, etc, etc for 5 mins - all ending in a message, that if the situation isn't life-threatening, you have to go to the WAPOL website and lodge an online report!!

Below is the 000 FAQ from ACMA. Unfortunately, the site says nothing about differences between states in the approach to using 000. A nationwide standard approach is something that should have been agreed on, instead of different state approaches.

ACMA - FAQ about the emergency call services

At the bottom of the above link, the last question advises that an app is available for smartphones that provides an explanation for when to call emergency numbers. This app has been produced by the Triple Zero Awareness Work Group, a national body representing all the various emergency services and industry partners - which group is obviously working towards sorting out bugs in the system and smoothing out problems that have arisen.

Probably the greatest failing in the emergency call system today is the lack of precise location information when calling emergency services. This is what they always need, immediately.

The app provides your location to emergency services, based on the GPS locator that is part of all smartphones - but when using other services, you have to ensure you can give reasonably precise location details.
On long, featureless roads, this can be a real problem, particularly when you're in an unfamiliar area.
On that basis, carrying some kind of accurate location device would definitely be a huge advantage.
Your phone GPS locator can also sometimes be inaccurate, and the services can only triangulate your rough position from mobile network towers.

This accurate location ability would be particularly important if, say, you crashed your car well off the road, and were not visible from the road, and you were unable to move.

One BIL, a Snr/Sgt, OIC of Northampton cop shop, copped a heap of flak and grilling, when a report was lodged to him about a crashed car on an isolated stretch of the NW Coastal Hwy, North of Northampton.
He went out to the general location with an associate, looking for the vehicle, and was unable to find it, despite a search, and despite the scrub being only moderately thick.

They returned and told HQ they couldn't find the reported vehicle, and suspected it was a hoax call, or the reportee had been mistaken.
However, there was a crashed car there, a bloke was dead in it, and it was sighted by a truckie several days later (who could see it, due to being located higher in the truck cab).

When the vehicle and body was recovered, the relatives kicked up a big stink, saying the victim might have been saved if the BIL had found the vehicle first off. There was a degree of argument about whether that was true or not, but the BIL still copped some serious flak from his bosses over the event.

Cheers, Ron.

There wouldn't be a roasting here in Queensland either. While reporting seeing a stolen vehicle doesn't necessarily fall into the urgent/emergency category reserved for 000, compared to the hoax and idiot calls they get it would be considered a legitimate probably forwarded to the Crime Stoppers number or Police Link.

I hope the vehicle is found.

Merry Christmas

Geoff

Sorry but 000 is not the only contact for police in Vic - they have Crime Stoppers like everywhere else.

Cheers Gary. Good luck with that. I think you are getting a little mixed up with a Police advice line" type facility as mentioned above. Some states have 13444 numbers for non urgent matters. We had them in Victoria until the Emergency Services Communications Authority (ESTA) took over the role of Comms and CAD for emergency services within the state.

Crime stoppers is actually a not for profit who's aim is to encourage people to ring in (often anonymously) with information about a crime sort of like "Dob in a dealer". They also handle rewards for information.

Might pay for you to have a read up on it but in the meantime, if you're ever in Victoria and suffer or witness a crime or emergency contact police on 000. If you consider it a non urgent or administrative matter, then pop along to your local police station of give them a ring direct.

https://www.crimestoppersvic.com.au/

Cheers

Yep OOO is the number. What a bugger Mick.

Cheers
Mark

Nice video, Fox Glacier ?
Obviously the wrong link, so hope the right link is forthcoming . . . I don't think that's Mick doing a glacier in Thailand, is it ?

Les, it picked up an old profile pick for the original video that I replaced. Should be fixed now. It's on both vimeo and Youtube.

Cheers

Mick

Hey, as an aisde to the intention of your post Mick, I've stayed in that hut a couple of times whilst climbing around the Fox Glacier region. Usually it involved a hike down from Pioneer Hut further up an overnight stay and then a quick helicopter ride back down to town...

And on the lookout for the vehicle!

Cheers, Baz

Spot on MH.

Already done!

How about a link to it here (if acceptable to admins) so we can all share. If it is done properly, as soon as the vehicle is found, it will show from the original on all the shared pages and people can stop looking and sharing.

Here's the link, below. Facebook is a good way to spread the word.
Also, notifying tow-truck groups is another good way of getting more eyes on the job - the towies get around, and are the type of blokes who notice abandoned or suss vehicles.
The biggest worry is if it has already been driven into a workshop and hidden and is perhaps already being dismantled.
Look out for fresh ads for major Landcruiser components (engine, tranny, wheels, bullbar) - particularly components that are in top condition - and you can't see the original vehicle they came from, or the story as to their origin can't be checked out.
Spares in excellent condition have to come from a newish wreck to be genuine. So the seller has to be able to provide proof of the purchase of the wreck, even if he's already scrapped the rest.

Facebook - Stolen cars notice board - Victoria

No sightings and as yet unrecovered Ron. Haven't taken anything down from any facebook sites so will check what has happened there.

Still looking.

Cheers

Mick

O.K. - I finally found the Facebook post via a search for "Landcruiser stolen Victoria".
Your post appears to have been removed from the Facebook page, "Stolen cars, Victoria", and has been transferred to Braxton Conroy's personal Facebook page.

I'd have to hazard an educated guess, based on long experience, that the vehicle has probably been dismantled by now - and keeping an eye open for cheap, "quick cash sale" Landcruiser components being advertised, could yield some information.

Thieves have to move the vehicle or components somehow, and quite often, they're dumb enough to advertise.
Of course, going interstate is also one of their simplest and easiest tricks, so we need to keep an eye open for cheap Landcruiser components or panels in other States - even distant ones.

Cheers, Ron.