Hundreds of fed-up Victorians have protested outside the home of a teenager who was released on bail after allegedly terrifying locals with fake guns at a shopping centre outside Melbourne.
Two teenagers, 14 and 16, were charged with possess imitation firearm, affray and theft on Thursday after allegedly stealing imitation handguns from a store at a shopping centre on the Mornington Peninsula and pointing them at shoppers at 10.40 in the morning.
Both were released on bail to face a children’s court at a later date, and a 13-year-old boy arrested at the scene was released without charges.
Photos and video taken inside the shopping centre show one of the teenagers pointing an imitation gun at a mother and her baby, and the incident sparked outrage in the local community after the footage was shared on social media.
“Oh my god, that poor mother and her child walking out to that. How scary and traumatising, I cannot even imagine,” wrote one upset local.
A large group of furious locals gathered outside the home of one of the teenagers on Friday to protest against the state’s weak bail laws and rampant youth crime, which rose 15% in Victoria in 2024.
“A couple of hundred easy, they came from everywhere,” one woman told 7 News when asked how many turned up.
“They were calling them ‘dog’ and everything, just ‘get off this property and get out of this street’.”
Other frustrated residents told STPL News they were sick of lawless behaviour in the area, saying teenagers were riding dirt bikes up and down the street non-stop.
“We need this to stop, mate. Protect our younger ones, because otherwise our younger ones are going to grow up doing the same shit,” said one man.
Another said the government was not doing its job properly, and said the Victorian Labor government should get “tossed out” the same way Queensland Labor were rejected by voters in favour of the tough-on-crime Liberal National Party.
“Hopefully the Liberals will do something, because I won’t be voting Labor … their politicians are not very good.”
Police parked outside the front of the home and patrolled the area throughout Friday evening.
Header image: One of the teenagers during the shopping centre rampage (Facebook). Right, locals on Friday (7 News).
