Oak Flats dad 'thankful' on having stolen skateboard returned

Minda Crescent resident Roger Gabriele said it was the second time his CCTV camera had been his saviour.

Mr Gabriele who was alerted by his neighbour after he saw a teenager "snooping around houses", checked the camera footage only to discover his daughter's skateboard had been stolen from his house.

"I had the footage so I decided to put it up on the community page on Facebook and people started tagging each other and someone said they knew who the boy was," Mr Gabriele said.

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The next thing he knew, police was on his doorstep with the stolen skateboard.

"Apparently his mother saw the post and knew it was him and she returned the skateboard to the police. I'm thankful to her for that."

The Oak Flats resident who runs an IT business from home said the safety concern for his devices was what initially got him to install the cameras.

"About nine months ago, I had a guy going around the back of my house. He took my mountain bike and threw it over the fence," Mr Gabriele said.

"I did get it back three weeks later, the camera footage helped."

Mr Gabriele said although his street is not "a high-crime area", they do get occasional "teenagers" creating some trouble.

"It helps to have cameras installed," he said.

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There seems to be a growing interest in installation of security cameras as evident on the community Facebook groups.

Dapto's Jessica Brown recently asked for suggestions on which cameras to buy with many comments from other CCTV owners pouring in.

"We got three new ring ones," Susan English said, "we only get informed when it's human motion as our dogs would set the motion off every time they are in the camera's view."

If you have concerns about possible criminal activity in your local neighbourhood, call Crime Stoppers on 1800 333 000 or use the Crime Stoppers online reporting page.

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