A community on the outskirts of Sydney’s southwest have said they are being terrorised by thieves, and have given up calling police for help.
With police stationed 40 minutes away, locals in Tahmoor are calling for more support.
In CCTV from the neighbourhood, a group of alleged thieves go house to house in a Tahmoor estate early on Tuesday morning, looking for unlocked homes and cars.
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“When I go to sleep, I don’t feel safe,” local Jamie-Lee Kaldasaun told 7NEWS.
“My kids are pretty scared,” local Chris Cooper added. “I’ve got teenage girls.”
The alleged thieves managed to find an unlocked car, and tried multiple times to get into a resident’s home.
“If it was just the car, I wouldn’t have been so scared, but they tried opening the front door twice,” Tia Smith said.
“I haven’t really slept much since.”
Alison Durrington was told by her neighbours that they had captured the alleged thieves rummaging through her garage.
“They saw them go into my garage,” she said.
The nearest police station is 40 minutes away in Narellan — nearby Picton has a station, but it is only open once a week for court sittings.
“The response time is massive,” Kaldasaun said. “These people know they can get away with it.”
Locals have taken to patrolling the streets themselves.
Residents and the council are calling for Picton’s station to be urgently upgraded to a 24-hour station.
“The whole of Wollondilly has been left behind, just completely forgotten about,” Wollondilly Shire councillor Suzy Brandstater said.
But NSW Police Minister Yasmin Catley maintains emergency services are always available in the area.
“There are 24/7 police in that area command, and they’re out in cars surveilling the whole of the area,” she said.
No arrests have been made in relation to the alleged break-ins.
– With Natasha Squarey
