Grandmother goes after root of crime problem

A gutsy grandmother's detective work has helped her to find the teenager who burgled her home and stop the "walking crime wave" in his tracks.

Confronting the teenager has also inspired Jane Pou, 54, of Papamoa, to galvanise her neighbours to band together to "take back" their burglary-plagued street from the teenager and his cohorts.

Mrs Pou, a disability assessor for the Bay of Plenty District Health Board, said she returned home from work on Thursday afternoon to find her house had been burgled.

"It wasn't just that I had been burgled, but that the thief had also trashed my 10-year-old grand-daughter Naomi's bedroom and stolen items from her bedroom as well.

"No way was I going to let anyone invade and ransack my mokopuna's room. The 13-year-old who did this even ripped the heads off her photographs. How low is that?"

After discovering the burglary, Mrs Pou set about door-knocking and, with the help of some local youngsters, tracked down the young offender, known to police as a "walking crime wave".

She said the youngster admitted his crime when confronted and she was then able to reclaim her stolen goods.

But Mrs Pou wasn't satisfied with just the return of her goods and an apology. She intends to make the youngster work off his crime, mowing lawns and doing chores.

She also organised a neighbourhood meeting in the local playground last Saturday that attracted 100 people - 30 of them had also been burgled - and she has community support to confront the issue.

"We all decided that we are no longer going to let these young people usurp our rights. The best justice is street justice. I'm not talking about beating people up or anything like that, but standing up to these kids and showing them we won't tolerate this sort of behaviour any longer."

Mrs Pou said she had clearly signalled this to the 13-year-old and his mates.

"We can't expect the police, who are busy investigating murders and the like, to do all the work for us. It's also up to the community to act."

Mrs Pou said one of the first steps in reclaiming her street was to take back ownership of the local playground, which used to be a regular haunt for neighbourhood bullies.

"Children just wouldn't go there but now we are starting to see kids enjoying themselves, and we have regular patrols going to keep an eye on them."

Papamoa community constable Mike McKenzie says he applauds Mrs Pou's initiative but he doesn't advocate that people go door-knocking to confront known offenders or their families.

"The outcome of Mrs Pou's intervention could have been very different."

Mr McKenzie said the youngster and three other young people from the area are known to be responsible for the majority of offending in the area.

"While police's hands are often tied when it comes to punitive actions against offenders of this age, I'm currently taking steps to address the 13-year-old's offending through Child, Youth and Family."

- NZPA