I would like Canberrans assistance in tracking down a particular motor vehicle. The four occupants of this vehicle attacked my wife and young child in a road rage attack a few weeks ago on the Monaro Highway.
At approximately 10:30pm on a Saturday evening, my wife was travelling eastbound along Hindmarsh Drive when in her rear view mirror she saw a late model silver Holden Commodore SS approaching at extremely high speed. The vehicle passed her and then swerved quickly in front of her into the lane she was occupying in order to pass a car in the other lane almost causing her to run off the road. The silver Commodore then continued along Hindmarsh Drive at high speed, driving erratically and dangerously around other vehicles.
At the intersection of Hindmarsh Drive and the Monaro Highway, the Commodore was stopped at a red arrow waiting to turn right and southbound toward Tuggeranong. As my wife’s car drew alongside their vehicle, her only mistake was to glance across at the occupants of the vehicle. Upon doing this, two of the passengers wound down the windows and started abusing her, yelling out “what the f*** are you looking at b****” and making other sexually explicit threats toward her. My wife ignored their taunts and when the arrow turned green she turned right to head down the Monaro Highway toward Tuggeranong.
The Commodore and its occupants then proceeded to tailgate her with their high beam lights on. After a few kilometres, they passed her at high speed and pulled in front of her, forcing her car off the road. Upon coming to a stop the four occupants of the Commodore got out of the vehicle, with two of them armed with what appeared to be a small bat and a small crowbar, and began hitting my wife’s vehicle with these objects and their fists with considerable force. The verbal threats continued, telling her to get out of the car while trying to gain access through the doors which were thankfully locked.
One of the occupants then struck the rear quarter window with one of their weapons with such force that it shattered showering glass all over our 4 month old baby, who was in a baby capsule in the back seat. At this time another vehicle was approaching the scene and upon seeing this the occupants of the Commodore all returned to their vehicle and left at high speed.
My wife called the police to report the incident immediately. The police attended the scene and took details.
In following this matter up, we have unfortunately been advised by the police that the registered owner of the vehicle is no longer at the address listed on his registration and license. As a result, the police can do very little until they catch up with the car and driver.
As a result, I would like to see whether this community can help in identifying the car and driver. The car was a silver late model Holden Commodore SS with ACT registration ***-***. It had red P-Plates displayed in the top right hand corner of the rear window. The four occupants were all males and aged between approximately 17 to 19 years of age.
If by any remote chance anyone knows of this vehicle or where it is garaged, see this vehicle on Canberra’s roads, or know the owner and where he lives, could you please pass this information onto me. There is considerable damage to my wife’s vehicle plus the police are very keen to catch up with these youths considering the nature of their attack on my wife and 4 month old child.
I know that this is a long shot, but I do not want to see these youths get away with such an unprovoked attack on an innocent woman and infant and have it potentially happen to someone else.
UPDATE: The highest levels of ACT Policing are now following this up and gmckay424 should check his email and get in touch with them. We’ve decided to suppress the rego details until the bottom has been got to.
FURTHER UPDATE: This statement from ACT Policing:
A comprehensive search of ACT Policing indices has yielded nil results for the incident as described.
Police would urge the original complainant in this matter to contact ACT Policing Operations on 131-444.”
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CC1234 said :
Is your fathers car a silver Commodore?
Are you or another user of the vehicle a P plate driver?
CC1234 said :
Might be an idea to check and make sure your dad’s car still has it’s plates on then. That they haven’t been pinched and swapped.
CC1234 said :
This should be interesting. If true, perhaps a well earned lesson in “Not believing everything you read on the net 1.01″ for about 99% of the commenters here.
If false, then maybe the rat has taken the bait?
Whichever scenario, I’d like to read about it in a ACT policing press release.
CC1234 said :
Well, that’s interesting, because there are other incidents where other individuals have allegedly seen this same vehicle on the road with P plates on it, allegedly being driven in a dangerous manner and/or the occupants abusing and threatening other road users. I’m sure the car was garaged at that time too – or were the plates removed and being used on another vehicle?
Sounds like someone might have some explaining to do when Daddy gets home?
CC1234 said :
Have you moved house recently? Perhaps bought the vehicle recently?
As a one off it could easily be a mistake, but when there’s more than report report identifying the same vehicle that seems less likely to be the case.
Mr Evil said :
The importance of getting that AFP Job No. early cannot be overstated! Something does ‘smell’ here – two seperate incidents reported here at Riot, no AFP Job No. provided (despite repeated requests to do so).
If it’s mistaken identity, then we need to know. It could be a ‘set-up’ on the car owner. Lets just hope we find out……………….the true story!!!
The truth is out there somewhere……….
Actually, I had a bit of a chuckle to myself at the comment that the car was garaged on Saturday night, as I recall numerous occasions back when I was younger, where friends of mine were driving around town in their parents’ car that was also supposedly garaged at the same time!
When the folks are away, the kiddies will play.
CC1234 said :
While lots of people on here claim to have seen a silver commodore only one has actually posted a plate.
If it’s wrong I reckon the original post is actionable.
shadow boxer said :
add in the other post that mentions it (from April) that was cited early in the comments… I hardly think the publishing of a vehicle number plate is illegal though… it is justifiable even, especially given the circumstances in the OP.
I wonder if the plates CC1234 refers to are indeed attached to a late-model silver HSV Commodore…
CC1234 said :
A breach of the privacy act requires something which can identify you being published. As clearly no one here has been able to locate the car, clearly no one has been able to identify you.
Say, is your name Gerldine by any chance? http://the-riotact.com/pictures-released-of-dfo-blaggers/33644
facet said :
So you’re not going to respond to my original post in any meaningful way? No worries.
Yeh I’m no expert, it;s a pretty clear accusation of criminal behaviour. I would assume if you owned the said car, and it wasn’t you, you would be angry.
JB peobably deals with these things every day and posted it so it;s probably o.k.
Tooks said :
Well did u expect anything less ……… if u cant reply with common sense and well thought out, unbiased replies, come back with insults. That always works
buzz819 said :
Hope you don’t join the Police anytime soon. God help us all if you do.
Chief Ten Beers said :
And yet you don’t provide a solution yourself …… with a comment like that, one would presume you have the answer, so do tell???
Chief Ten Beers said :
Good response, well thought out, thorough, yet lacks any substance or appeal.
So how do you go about finding a driver of a car, with maybe the wrong rego and nothing else to go on?
Several years ago, whilst having issues with a stalker, I recieved a call late at night from the AFP informing me that my car had just been involved in an accident – I was a little surprised as I had just parked it. My initial thought was that it wasn’t the police, so I informed them that it wasn’t invovled in an accident and someone must have been winding them up.
I then rang the police and they confirmed that it was them that called and that they had done so following a report by a member of the public. I asked them how they had my mobile number and they informed me that they get all that info from their rego data base.
Given this, I am quite surprised that CC1234′s father has not recieved a call and that (according to the OP) the police have said that they can’t do anything about it because the person the vehicle is registered to has moved house.
colourful sydney racing identity said :
In addition, most people who move forward their mail. While a dodgy person might ignore a letter from the police about such a thing, you would expect if the reported rego number belongs to a genuinely innocent individual they would respond quickly to a letter about it.
I had a guy visit me who had a similar story, got chased and punched in the face for tooting a car at a green light.
I’ve been chased and abused by two 25yr old drunk guys in a ute because i looked at them as I passed and shook my head as the driver was drinking a beer!
A good friend of mine had her car damaged two years ago by some morons in an unregistered white VL. They drove between her and another car at speed through a red light and the car scraped all down the side of her car. When she rang Police and gave them the rego they said there was nothing they could do as the car was unregistered. She later spotted the car parked at an automotive service centre near Erindale College;-0 and rang the police who said they’d send a car. 2 hours later she left in disgust as no-one turned up. She spoke to the owner of the establishment but he denied knowing anything about the car despite it being parked there (she believes it belonged to one of the young employees)
Terrible behaviour. I’ve seen examples where occupants of vehicles seem to deliberately bate a response form other drivers too. Would seem there may be drivers on the road who are actually looking for an excuse to do something. Driving erratically to slow traffic behind for example while constantly looking in back mirror being a recent example.
Given in this case there were multiple occupants who had access to objects capable of doing damage, can’t help thinking maybe they were looking for an excuse to do something. Some real sickos out there.
Ez said :
I had a similar experience with the police in Tuggeranong a few years back. I was working in a shop on Friday night when a man drove into the car park out the front in a ute. He parked across 3 spaces, and it took him about 2 minutes to get out of the car. He stumbled inside, and wandered around the shop. It was quite obvious he was drunk. He couldn’t speak properly and he smelt of alcohol. After he had been there for 5 minutes, I kept him busy and instructed the other staff member to contact the police. We didn’t want this guy driving home and killing himself or someone else on the way. The police station was literally 600m away. They could have walked over in less than 5 minutes – 30 seconds by car, tops. We asked them to hurry and they told us they’d send someone straight over to take care of it. I kept the customer busy for nearly 30 minutes in the vain hope that the police would actually do something about it. They never showed up.
Mysteryman said :
Did you follow up to find out why?
Maybe all patrols were tied up with higher priority incidents ???? Just because the Police station is 600mts away, doesn’t mean there is responding police there. They may be at other jobs.
Your situation you describe is not good enough, Police should have responded (if it is 100% truth) but there may have been a reason for it, or maybe not. If it was me, I certainly would have followed up why there was a no show.
I would be interested to know if in all these apparent no shows by Police, if these people ever followed up why and if they did, what the reason was.
Mysteryman said :
If police are busy, they are unlikely to be hanging around in the station waiting for a job to come in. The priority system exists for a reason, and while I applaud your actions in calling the police and trying to stall the driver (and would encourage you to do the same in future), it is quite possible patrols were tied up with something more urgent.
That is an horrific incident involving your two most precious people. I live down that way and will keep an eye out for the car and report it.
There is no place for these morons! They have to get petrol somewhere though…put up a notice at all the service stations and perhaps contact the station owners and ask them and their staff to be on alert & notify police? Maybe even mechanics & panelbeater workshops? Hope this is helpful gmckay424.
yo i seen that vehicle parked up across from the CIT in woden near the hospital on hindmarsh dr parked on the middle median strip this morning at about 11am!!!!!!!!
Tooks said :
You shouldn’t have to follow up a call to the police. They should contact the person making the call and advise when they will be onsite, better yet have enough resources to deal with your everyday policing matters.
I’ve contacted the police when there was a crime in progress, thankfully the crims took their sweet time because when the cops showed up 1 hour later the crims were still there.
Another time I called them after finding a still warm body in bushland, it turned out it was a jogger who died of a heart attack, but it took them 2 hours to respond.
That in my books is woeful. In the US I know for a fact you would receive a response for many of the instances listed in a matter of minutes in most similar sized cities.
Rather than deploying the AFP overseas all the time, they need to clean up their own backyard in Canberra.
You shouldn’t have to follow up a call to the police. They should contact the person making the call and advise when they will be onsite, better yet have enough resources to deal with your everyday policing matters.
I didn’t suggest people should have to make a follow up call to police. Where did that come from? I explained there is a priority system which means they attend the most urgent jobs first. Makes sense, no? As for insufficient resources, whose fault is that?
I won’t address your other points, because frankly, they sound made up (an hour to arrive for offenders at the scene – and they were caught anyway? 2 hours for a death in public?). I’m not suggesting you’re lying about the incidents themselves, but perhaps exaggerating the response time. Anyway, in both your examples the results wouldn’t have changed had they arrived within 5 minutes, would they? The offenders would still be caught and the unfortunate jogger would still be dead.
However, if they are true and you didn’t exaggerate, then I’d be interested to hear the outcome of the complaints you made? What, you didn’t complain? How are you going to make them accountable for their ‘woeful’ actions then? Serious question. People often have these horror tales of police inaction, but what gets me is if they are true, then how are they brought to account if the issue is never raised?
Face it folks. Anyone writing detailed accounts of how the police failed (repeatedly) are WRONG, making it up, or probably criminals themselves. You’ve been told.