A WEST Dubbo woman says she has barely slept during the past two weeks because of crime and antisocial behaviour in her neighbourhood, including an incident in which a bag that may have contained asbestos was thrown into her backyard to distract her dogs while attempts were made to steal a car from her house.
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Her concerns echoed those of an elderly resident who earlier this week told the Daily Liberal she was frightened to be in her own home after having her fence kicked in and being broken into twice in three weeks.
The woman said she had left messages with Dubbo mayor Mathew Dickerson and Dubbo MP Troy Grant on Wednesday morning to let them know she had had enough, and had extended an invitation for either or both to stay the night at her house so they could see first-hand what residents had to put up with.
The woman believed the plastic shopping bag containing what appeared to be smashed-up fibro was ditched over the fence in an effort to distract the dogs while intruders attempted to break into a car parked in her driveway in the early hours of Sunday morning.
“And later in the morning we discovered they’d turned the sensor lights around that were near the front door so they wouldn’t shine on them,” she said.
“We found the bag in the backyard - I didn’t want to go closer than opening it with a stick,” she said.
“It’s probably from this house in Alcheringa Street that the kids have smashed up and is full of holes.”
The incident was reported to police.
On Monday last week a member of her family heard a noise and saw a figure trying to break into the front window.
When she opened the door to investigate, the family’s dogs raced after a gang of three to four youths prowling in their yard, chasing them to Alcheringa Street before the youths disappeared.
“Last Saturday night, what looked like two brand-new utes were doing donuts on the oval near the hockey fields and we rang the police, who came quickly but they took off before they got there,” the woman said.
“Within an hour another car was doing burnouts there and took off.”
On Sunday morning a piece of wire hooked at the end was found in the driveway, along with scratches on the early-model Ford that an intruder or intruders had attempted to break into but failed.
Last Monday night, she said, trailbike riders dressed in hoodies had raced around O’Donnell and Alcheringa streets.
Then in the early hours of Wednesday, nearby residents had to shoo away a gang of youths creeping around the outside of a house in East Street, she said.
“A few of us around here are pretty sure we know who it is, it’s a small group but they’re doing it often,” she said.
“Between cars being stolen and torched, motorbikes roaring around, kids creeping around and then dogs barking at the kids creeping around, it’s impossible to get a moment’s sleep here.”
