ERROL PARKER | Editor-at-large | Contact
A local burglar has used malignant short-term leasing app Airbnb to search for homes that will be vacant this weekend so he can go and steal everything that isn’t bolted down.
If the home is big enough, the burglar explained to our reporter that it might even be worth stripping the copper wire out of the walls.
“These houses sit empty all week when there’s a rental crisis on in Betoota. They sit empty until the weekend when some yuppies come up from the city and pay $500 a night to sleep in some cunt’s home where you have to clean everything and strip the beds. It’s a joke,” he said.
“So I go on the app and see which houses are empty, then I go over and rob them. I turn the power off first. If it’s a rural property, I might even shoot the power line out with a twelve gauge. Mate sure the cameras are off then I go to town. Take every appliance, all the electronics, paintings. Everything,”
“The best part is, the police couldn’t care less. They get some property investor cunt at their front desk saying they’ve been robbed. What do the cops care? Because of people like them, a lot of the cops are have to live in Windorah. They can’t afford to live in Betoota because there’s not enough housing stock and those who can afford it are doctors and other professionals,”
“So the police don’t care. Neighbours don’t care. I obviously don’t care. It’s a great ruse, using this app. And if people are there, I just jog past and throw a pot of brake fluid on their car just because I can.”
A local property investor spoke to The Advocate about having his place burgled last month, something he says makes him reconsider investing in our town.
The Advocate‘s editor Clancy Overell had his Lake Betoota beach bungalow burgled in September and police say they’ve hit a dead end in their investigation.
“Whoever broke into my house, they took everything except for the microwave, which they left on the floor in the living room. They shit on the glass plate, put it back in the microwave and turned it on,” he said.
“The police refused to touch it or dust it for prints. They said it was fucking gross. Unbelievable!”
“The insurance only covered half the cost. I’m out tens of thousands. I found the TV on Facebook Marketplace a week later but the police said without proof I own it, they don’t care. Fuck this place, man.”
More to come.
