By Charlene Macaulay and Alesha Capone
Police are cracking down on aggravated burglaries, carjackings, street robberies and stolen vehicles in two targeted operations across Wyndham and surrounding areas.
Operation Regnant has deployed extra local and state police resources – including a police helicopter and dog squad – into overnight patrols across Wyndham, Brimbank and Melton to tackle aggravated burglaries, carjackings and related offences.
Police from the north-west metro region have also been conducting Operation Wayward, which has been investigating specific patterns of offending and chasing up lines of inquiry – particularly relating to street robberies and armed robberies – across Wyndham, Brimbank, Maribyrnong and Hobsons Bay.
Wyndham Police Inspector Marty Allison said detectives working on Operation Regnant, which has run
for the past month, had so far nabbed eight offenders and charged them with a combined 42 offences, including theft of cars and theft from cars.
The operation remains ongoing.
Inspector Allison said this was not the first time such an operation had been run.
“Where we see incidents on the rise … we pour some resources into the areas of most need,” he said.
“For us, it’s not so much about the results or how many arrests have been made, it’s about what crimes we have prevented by our presence.”
A Victoria Police spokesman said Operation Wayward investigators had arrested 38 people within the past four months, with individuals charged with a number of offences, including armed robbery, aggravated burglary and theft of motor vehicle.
Meanwhile, Wyndham police were kept busy last week with several crimes not connected to either Operation Regnant or Operation Wayward reported in the area.
On June 5, a police helicopter and officers on the road intercepted two youths driving a stolen car in Tarneit following a brief pursuit and arrested the pair in relation to an alleged robbery in Mala Street, Truganina.
A 15-year-old Southbank boy was charged with robbery, theft and other offences, and a 17-year-old Truganina boy was interviewed and released pending inquiries.
About 10.45pm the same day, three men armed with a hammer and a long knife allegedly threatened an attendant during an armed robbery at a Truganina service station along Leakes Road and fled with cash and cigarettes.
On Sunday, police arrested two men at the Sanctuary Lakes Shopping Centre following reports of an alleged theft and assault at a bottle shop.
A 22 year old Melton man was charged with theft, assault, resisting police and affray. A 20-year-old Point Cook man was charged with theft, assault with a weapon and affray.
Both men were bailed to appear in court at a later date.
