By Callum Ludwig
Traders and shopowners in town centres have been targeted by criminals and vandals and despite often having cameras in their own stores, would welcome CCTV in the main streets.
Here’s what a few local business owners in the Upper Yarra had to say about the incidents affecting them.
The Charlie Horse Vintage Clothing store in Warburton was egged and defaced overnight between 10pm 31 October and 8am 1 November 2024 and owner Charlie Gaultier said street cameras would have been extremely helpful.
“The vandals have been identified, but for some bizarre reason, police are reluctant to do anything until they get further evidence, they caused $3500 worth of damage,” he said.
“Local council gives us lip service but doesn’t come through, also very disappointing.
“Businesses such as mine do have cameras, but thieves cover up, a town CCTV system would most certainly deter criminal activity.”
Images of the damage shared by police show the shopfront had been heavily ‘egged’ and the perpetrators had also written ‘STINKY’ with some form of white paint on a window.
In June 2022, the old Warburton IGA building was left burnt out, with a male and female caught on private CCTV cameras around the time of the incident of interest to police.
Owner of the Warburton IGA Shane Wyles said while his understanding is two juveniles were caught, a stronger CCTV presence could have prevented it altogether.
“Because it was an empty building, it didn’t stop our trade and our intention was to knock it down when we started the new one, but it did cost us about $30,000 for the cleanup,” he said.
“However, what I’d say is a building of that size had been still in use, it’s more than half a million or $600,000 worth of damage that would have had to have been replaced.
“It certainly proves the efficiency of CCTV and if it wasn’t for the private CCTV, I don’t believe the incident would have been resolved but it also becomes a deterrent, not just for arson but tagging and the whole works.”
Mr Wyles said the Warburton IGA are strongly in favour of having a CCTV network in town and the new building under construction now will have extensive internal and external CCTV cameras and will provide footage to police when need.
The Star Mail tried to contact the owner of the TerryWhite Chemmart in Wandin North Nabih Barsoum, who expressed support for CCTV in the township following a break in at the pharmacy in June 2024.
At the time, Mr Barsoum said he thought some upgrades to security on the strip of shops could help.
“If we had more cameras in that strip, we could capture them from all different directions, which would help identify them more, we need fixed cameras, not just by the shop owners, because you cannot force them to do it,” he said.
“More light as well, I’ve got my own light out the front of the pharmacy but everywhere else is so dark as well.
“We need to come up with a plan for the whole strip because it’s attractive for criminals and they will keep coming back.”
