In July 2016, a group of four teenagers entered Williams Landing resident Ritesh Chandan’s house around 3.30am in the morning and drove off with their car.
Just days before this attack on Chandan family, Paresh Parmar from Tarneit was attacked by five young boys right at his doorstep who physically assaulted him, hit him on the eye before driving away with his car.
Chandan and Parmar families are among the 56,000 victims of motor vehicle theft in 2016.
According to the figures released by the Australian Bureau of Statistics (ABS), motor vehicle thefts increased by 9 per cent in 2016.
ABS Director of Crime and Justice Statistics William Milne said that the number of victims of motor vehicle theft rose to over 56,000 in 2016, the highest number since 2012.
"The increase from last year was driven entirely by three states: Victoria (up 25 per cent), Queensland (up 19 per cent) and South Australia (up 10 per cent)," he said. "All other states and territories recorded decreases.’'
Three-quarters of vehicles were stolen from either an outbuilding or residential land (which includes thefts from garages, driveways and carports) or from a street or footpath.
Several Indian families today call Melbourne West, their home. Several of them have become victims of house burglaries, car thefts and physical assaults.
Sanjay Sethi, member of the Neighbourhood Watch Tarneit Central in Melbourne says awareness campaigns have helped secure people and neighbourhood.
“We regularly conduct meet and greet meetings where members share their personal experiences and observations. After recent cases, we have also started alerting people in the group and especially neighbours if we see anything suspicious.”
The thefts have continued in 2017.
In March this year, Indian Australian couple Rakesh and Monica Raizada’s home in Melbourne was struck by intruders who made away with their Audi car and expensive jewelry.
Earlier in February 2017, Kamaljeet Kaur woke up to find her Audi car and her nephew's Ford stolen from her Thomastown home in Melbourne.
