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Machete at Midnight: They Picked the Wrong House | "Michael" · Real Crime with Adam Shand

• 0:05
  Speaker 1: Apodje production.
• 0:10
  Speaker 2: This podcast contains references to violence and serious injury. Listener
• 0:15
  Speaker 2: discretion is advised. Welcome to Real Crime with Adam Shand.
• 0:23
  Speaker 2: I'm your host Adam Shand. Across the country, but especially
• 0:27
  Speaker 2: in Victoria, we're facing a youth crime crisis, or maybe
• 0:31
  Speaker 2: it's a gang crime crisis, or maybe it's both.
• 0:35
  Speaker 3: Victoria police confirm a surge in aggravated burglaries across Melbourne's
• 0:39
  Speaker 3: northern and western suburbs, with investigators linking a number of
• 0:43
  Speaker 3: incidents to organized youth offending.
• 0:47
  Speaker 2: What is beyond dispute is that African news, especially those
• 0:51
  Speaker 2: from a Sudanese background, are overrepresented in these crimes, which
• 0:56
  Speaker 2: often include violence and terror.
• 0:59
  Speaker 3: Neighborhood Watch Group in Melbourne's North says membership has tripled
• 1:03
  Speaker 3: in six months, driven largely by fear of home invasion.
• 1:09
  Speaker 2: There are fewer than two hundred thousand people of Sudanese
• 1:12
  Speaker 2: extraction in total in this country, and the vast majority
• 1:15
  Speaker 2: are peace loving, laurabiding citizens. However, a cohort of young
• 1:20
  Speaker 2: Sudanese men is wreaking havoc, committing aggravated burglaries and home
• 1:25
  Speaker 2: invasions with impunity, often armed with machetes.
• 1:30
  Speaker 4: A man was hospitalized after a violent home invasion in
• 1:33
  Speaker 4: Melbourne's North where offenders armed with machetes forced entry in
• 1:37
  Speaker 4: the early hours of the morning.
• 1:40
  Speaker 2: Michael not his real name, was visited by three armed
• 1:44
  Speaker 2: offenders in the dead of night recently. When he resisted,
• 1:48
  Speaker 2: he was attacked with a machete, but still he did
• 1:52
  Speaker 2: not give in. He believes he was set up by
• 1:55
  Speaker 2: a woman who'd been to his home previously and knew
• 1:59
  Speaker 2: its contents.
• 2:01
  Speaker 4: Community leaders are calling for urgent action after a string
• 2:04
  Speaker 4: of machette related incidents across Melbourne. Victims say they feel
• 2:08
  Speaker 4: abandoned by a system that isn't keeping up with the
• 2:11
  Speaker 4: violence on their streets.
• 2:14
  Speaker 2: No one has been arrested for this terrifying crime. When
• 2:18
  Speaker 2: I arrived at Michael's home, he was having the locks
• 2:20
  Speaker 2: changed on his doors and trying to regain his sense
• 2:24
  Speaker 2: of safety.
• 2:28
  Speaker 5: How are you going good? Come through? So this door's
• 2:32
  Speaker 5: being replaced to s worry about that. It's this lot
• 2:36
  Speaker 5: here and the one on the back door. Yes, so
• 2:44
  Speaker 5: my keys were stolen and they've got both those keys.
• 2:48
  Speaker 5: So but the front door in a replace can have
• 2:49
  Speaker 5: a digital lot. So the place is disaster We've not
• 2:53
  Speaker 5: been here for like five weeks, so I apologize.
• 2:55
  Speaker 1: No, nice, fine boy, lucky to be here at all.
• 2:58
  Speaker 5: Really, when they came up, it was they were straight
• 3:02
  Speaker 5: to the kids bedrooms. If the kids were here, who
• 3:03
  Speaker 5: would have been terrible? Yeah, have you seen any photos?
• 3:09
  Speaker 1: No, let's have a look.
• 3:11
  Speaker 2: All right, that's where you were hit with the machete
• 3:13
  Speaker 2: on the back them there and then you got a
• 3:15
  Speaker 2: big bruise.
• 3:17
  Speaker 1: That's your blood on the wall.
• 3:18
  Speaker 5: It's all my blood. I never got them.
• 3:20
  Speaker 2: Down the stairs in the carpet. Well, these pictures tell
• 3:24
  Speaker 2: their own stories. Yeah, that's basically.
• 3:27
  Speaker 1: So how did this all begin? Michael?
• 3:29
  Speaker 5: Well, on the night what happened was it was maybe
• 3:32
  Speaker 5: two thirty in the morning and it was fast asleep.
• 3:37
  Speaker 5: I heard something at the front door. I heard footsteps
• 3:40
  Speaker 5: coming up the stairs, and I thought, the kids are here.
• 3:43
  Speaker 5: One of the kids have gotten up. Then I realized, oh,
• 3:45
  Speaker 5: I haven't got the kids tonight. Then once they got
• 3:47
  Speaker 5: to the middle level here of the towerhouse, they were
• 3:50
  Speaker 5: in the bedrooms everywhere, just going give me the money.
• 3:53
  Speaker 5: Where's the money? And I then looked over put my
• 3:58
  Speaker 5: beads on the top level, but there's no door and
• 4:00
  Speaker 5: I started screaming, get out of my house.
• 4:02
  Speaker 1: And so you've come from the top level. So they
• 4:04
  Speaker 1: were in this level and you've come down the stairs.
• 4:07
  Speaker 5: Yeah. So I was looking over this area here. Once
• 4:12
  Speaker 5: I realized it wasn't my kids, and I started, I
• 4:15
  Speaker 5: went getting fun out of my house. And then I
• 4:18
  Speaker 5: went and grabbed this. I've got a background martial arts,
• 4:21
  Speaker 5: and I pulled it up.
• 4:21
  Speaker 1: So what is this one.
• 4:22
  Speaker 5: It's just a little ornamental short sword.
• 4:25
  Speaker 2: Yeah, so Japanese samurai style. Yeah, but it's not sharp,
• 4:30
  Speaker 2: that's reasonably. It's like a letter up there with a
• 4:32
  Speaker 2: bit of yeah, a big letter opener.
• 4:34
  Speaker 5: Yeah. And then I ran down here and they came.
• 4:38
  Speaker 5: One of the guy with a machee. He came around
• 4:40
  Speaker 5: the corner with a bellot clav room. I kicked him.
• 4:43
  Speaker 5: He went down. I went, I just charged down. I
• 4:48
  Speaker 5: got to about here and then he was standing there
• 4:51
  Speaker 5: and I went a bit of this. There was a
• 4:54
  Speaker 5: guy here, the second guy who said, I'm going a gun.
• 4:57
  Speaker 5: I'm going to shoot you. It did look like a
• 5:00
  Speaker 5: real gun to me. It could be I don't know
• 5:02
  Speaker 5: if you could make a homemade gun. But he said
• 5:04
  Speaker 5: I'm going to shoot you. He said shoot him, shoot him.
• 5:07
  Speaker 5: And then so I did a turn around, went back
• 5:09
  Speaker 5: up the stairs and that's where he.
• 5:12
  Speaker 1: Got me on the back and she with a machete
• 5:14
  Speaker 1: on the back.
• 5:14
  Speaker 5: Yes, the machete on the arm there which was cut open,
• 5:17
  Speaker 5: and then on the back and then this was my
• 5:20
  Speaker 5: line in the sand. I couldn't get to him. It
• 5:22
  Speaker 5: was obviously I'm right handed. He had a machete. He's
• 5:25
  Speaker 5: swinging it around the corner and it was just just
• 5:27
  Speaker 5: basically just stopped me getting.
• 5:29
  Speaker 1: Slashed, blocking the blood with their little sword.
• 5:32
  Speaker 5: Yeah. So and he had a big machede. It's like
• 5:35
  Speaker 5: it's huge. And then I don't know, I just he
• 5:38
  Speaker 5: got me some. This whole thing's covered in blood and.
• 5:41
  Speaker 1: Down the stairs here and the blood was sprang up
• 5:43
  Speaker 1: on the walls and.
• 5:44
  Speaker 5: Throwing on the walls, machete marks in the plaster. And
• 5:48
  Speaker 5: then I will swear from get out of my house
• 5:51
  Speaker 5: to whenever I did. You know, And I haven't done
• 5:54
  Speaker 5: martial lasts for twenty years, but the train we did,
• 5:56
  Speaker 5: which it just kicked, it wasn't even thought. And maybe
• 5:59
  Speaker 5: because I came out of a deep sleep and I
• 6:01
  Speaker 5: was went, you're not going to leave, You're fucked. Basically,
• 6:04
  Speaker 5: I got so angry, so Ridiculus, of course you got angry,
• 6:08
  Speaker 5: and I went, you're going to fucking die here, can't.
• 6:10
  Speaker 5: I said, this is it? Do you? You're fucked. So
• 6:13
  Speaker 5: we're having these screaming matches. He's there, I'm here, and
• 6:17
  Speaker 5: I realized that this is not a grown man. That's
• 6:20
  Speaker 5: when when I saw his eyes. And when I went
• 6:22
  Speaker 5: around the corner the other two there's one little guy
• 6:25
  Speaker 5: who's kid. You three of them, three and apparently one
• 6:27
  Speaker 5: in a van down the street. And I came down,
• 6:30
  Speaker 5: you know, like like this. His eyes opened up like
• 6:33
  Speaker 5: I don't think they're expecting what they got.
• 6:35
  Speaker 2: And I must say, look at you. You don't, Michael. You
• 6:37
  Speaker 2: don't look like a big, tough guy. You're just like
• 6:39
  Speaker 2: an average you know, none small. Yeah, So you found
• 6:43
  Speaker 2: the strength within you to project, you know, he's trying
• 6:47
  Speaker 2: to save your life at.
• 6:48
  Speaker 5: This moment one percent. But it wasn't. There's nothing he
• 6:51
  Speaker 5: wrong about. It just happened. If the kids were here,
• 6:53
  Speaker 5: I would have changed downstairs and there could have been
• 6:54
  Speaker 5: all different ballgame. So I was very lucky, and.
• 6:58
  Speaker 1: I know that you're lucky. You took proactive action.
• 7:00
  Speaker 2: You had the little sword that were you're still brandishing,
• 7:03
  Speaker 2: which has got a bit of blood on it, doesn't
• 7:04
  Speaker 2: it blood?
• 7:05
  Speaker 1: That's your blood still on it.
• 7:06
  Speaker 5: And the guy with the machine was in charge. And
• 7:08
  Speaker 5: then he's you know, I figured that if he was
• 7:12
  Speaker 5: going to shoot me, he would have shot me, but
• 7:14
  Speaker 5: he didn't. So when this is didn't look like a
• 7:16
  Speaker 5: full law gun to me, and I was got angry
• 7:19
  Speaker 5: and I said, you're going to fucking die tonight. I said,
• 7:21
  Speaker 5: you're not going to see your mother again. This is it.
• 7:24
  Speaker 5: And he's back at me. Then he starts hitting you.
• 7:27
  Speaker 5: He said, well, who are you?
• 7:28
  Speaker 1: You know?
• 7:29
  Speaker 5: Are you you know we're going to we want the
• 7:30
  Speaker 5: money to do That's just it was bullying, you know.
• 7:33
  Speaker 5: And he's hitting the wall here and down there with
• 7:36
  Speaker 5: a machete and I figured this is these are kids
• 7:38
  Speaker 5: who were just trying to intimidate. How were They did
• 7:42
  Speaker 5: come up swinging, so it wasn't just like giving me
• 7:43
  Speaker 5: the money or we're going to cut you. He came
• 7:46
  Speaker 5: up swinging and until I kicked him down. Yeah, and
• 7:48
  Speaker 5: then I went I just got angry. And then long
• 7:50
  Speaker 5: story short, I grabbed the pillow up here, grabbed the
• 7:54
  Speaker 5: pillow back up to you. One of them wanted to
• 7:57
  Speaker 5: leave and then have one week blood or over can
• 8:01
  Speaker 5: wash quint saying here anymore? And I put my hand
• 8:03
  Speaker 5: in here and I'm like, you're fuck, I'm going to
• 8:04
  Speaker 5: get you. And I just went charging us like I'm
• 8:07
  Speaker 5: gonna I think he's gonna if you. If you he's
• 8:09
  Speaker 5: gonna shoot, you would have shot me. The guy with
• 8:10
  Speaker 5: the machete, at least they've got that. And they went.
• 8:13
  Speaker 1: So they actually left.
• 8:15
  Speaker 5: They left five minutes thirty seconds. It was long as
• 8:17
  Speaker 5: five minutes in a life. It must have seen a
• 8:19
  Speaker 5: lot longer too. When the police came, I thought it
• 8:22
  Speaker 5: was about ten minutes, but yeah, it was. The guy
• 8:24
  Speaker 5: with the machine incruising charge had no issue whatsoever. The
• 8:28
  Speaker 5: other two looked.
• 8:29
  Speaker 1: Scared, you know, and they're in ballet Clava's full.
• 8:33
  Speaker 5: Ballot Clava's Apparently they had gloves on, but I didn't
• 8:35
  Speaker 5: remember that. But the more the more primal I got,
• 8:38
  Speaker 5: and the more screaming, you know, it just it was
• 8:42
  Speaker 5: because the kids went here, which is like I just
• 8:45
  Speaker 5: went to another zone, and the other two I could
• 8:48
  Speaker 5: see were scared. The guy with the machee wasn't scared. One
• 8:51
  Speaker 5: of the little ones says, okay, let's go, let's go.
• 8:53
  Speaker 5: He goes, and they went out of my sight and
• 8:55
  Speaker 5: then the machine goes get back here. That maybe last
• 8:58
  Speaker 5: another thirty seconds, and then I went, fuck it, I'm
• 9:00
  Speaker 5: over this. I went, it has to end now, regardless
• 9:04
  Speaker 5: of what the our come is, because I wasn't in
• 9:06
  Speaker 5: a you know, my head's in a pumped full of adrenaline.
• 9:10
  Speaker 1: Yeah, fight, I fight, and you're mainly fighting at this point.
• 9:12
  Speaker 5: Yeah, and so this has to end.
• 9:13
  Speaker 1: Now.
• 9:13
  Speaker 5: I'm sickly, you're in my house, and I was so
• 9:15
  Speaker 5: angry but not thinking logically. It's just I was just
• 9:18
  Speaker 5: doing I grabbed a pillow and whether that's it, someone's
• 9:20
  Speaker 5: it's going to end now, whether it's I get cut,
• 9:23
  Speaker 5: you get cut, whatever's going to happen, it's going to end.
• 9:26
  Speaker 5: During that period I worked out, not that I was
• 9:29
  Speaker 5: thinking about it at the time, but they were kids.
• 9:31
  Speaker 5: They weren't like if you came here, we were totally
• 9:33
  Speaker 5: for ball game, big guy. These were kids. So it's
• 9:37
  Speaker 5: tall than me, but they were skinny. It's a different
• 9:40
  Speaker 5: tackling kids.
• 9:41
  Speaker 2: And you still want to stab me if it was me, actually,
• 9:43
  Speaker 2: but in that mode you're in, you're trying to survive,
• 9:46
  Speaker 2: you know, and that's you don't think very logically.
• 9:48
  Speaker 1: In that stated percent. But so how old do you
• 9:51
  Speaker 1: think these offenders were?
• 9:53
  Speaker 5: Fifteen through seventeens? I'm ford into seventy.
• 9:56
  Speaker 1: And do you know what the nationality might have been
• 9:58
  Speaker 1: or the ethnic background.
• 9:59
  Speaker 5: Oh, they're definitely Sudanese these right, with no doubt. You
• 10:03
  Speaker 5: can see because the bell clive was like that.
• 10:06
  Speaker 2: But you can still see they lost their rag halfway through.
• 10:09
  Speaker 2: Let's go back downstairs. Let's work out how they got in.
• 10:12
  Speaker 2: That's why I to be interested to know. Okay, back
• 10:16
  Speaker 2: downstairs now, So you think they got in through the front.
• 10:22
  Speaker 5: Yeah, there's I think one kick they got through, so
• 10:25
  Speaker 5: the door didn't fail me.
• 10:27
  Speaker 1: This failed me, the doorjam failed. They kicked the door
• 10:30
  Speaker 1: until till a door frame broke.
• 10:32
  Speaker 5: Yeah, I think it was one prone. You heard one thud,
• 10:35
  Speaker 5: so I think one kick they got in. So this
• 10:36
  Speaker 5: is what was holding it all together.
• 10:39
  Speaker 1: That's been screwed back in since just to be secure.
• 10:42
  Speaker 1: But that's basically how they got in. And so why you, Michael,
• 10:46
  Speaker 1: why do you think you were targeted?
• 10:49
  Speaker 5: Well, I met somebody oh six months earlier, I think
• 10:54
  Speaker 5: who was in event management and had a quick romantic
• 11:00
  Speaker 5: think that was it. And then it was like, because
• 11:03
  Speaker 5: I'm in hospitality, so a lot of things that you know,
• 11:06
  Speaker 5: people come to me all the time, and you know,
• 11:08
  Speaker 5: you try to help people out lots of stuff. But
• 11:11
  Speaker 5: she's Sudanese as well. And then eventually, like we're talking
• 11:15
  Speaker 5: months and months after the conversation, came up about gold
• 11:17
  Speaker 5: because gold was going up like that, and I went, oh,
• 11:21
  Speaker 5: maybe you know I'm invest in gold. I know nothing
• 11:24
  Speaker 5: about gold. So she was talking about us. Okay, I'll
• 11:27
  Speaker 5: go down and to Colin Street to the world the
• 11:29
  Speaker 5: things are with my daughter. I got cold feet and
• 11:32
  Speaker 5: I didn't know enough about it. Came back that was Tuesday,
• 11:35
  Speaker 5: I think it was, and then she was doing something
• 11:39
  Speaker 5: which sounds so ridiculous now they say it back. She's
• 11:42
  Speaker 5: there's a thing called which is for women who are
• 11:46
  Speaker 5: trying to escape domestic abuse, and it's a government thing.
• 11:51
  Speaker 5: But it came up a couple of times that I
• 11:53
  Speaker 5: don't know enough about it. I know, you know, generally,
• 11:55
  Speaker 5: but she goes, We've got a property and we've ticked
• 11:59
  Speaker 5: off all the requirements to do this, but the government
• 12:02
  Speaker 5: doesn't have enough properties for the demand and the great
• 12:05
  Speaker 5: Cause fantastic, But we're thirty thousand dollars short. And I go, okay,
• 12:09
  Speaker 5: because you know anyone who can finance, and I still
• 12:12
  Speaker 5: I do. I've got my cousin's a broker, you know,
• 12:14
  Speaker 5: coming in hospital trying to be helpful. Yeah, you buy.
• 12:16
  Speaker 5: You know you can get money even because a traditional
• 12:19
  Speaker 5: bank for whatever reason didn't work for it. So that
• 12:23
  Speaker 5: was it. I thought nothing more of it. And then
• 12:26
  Speaker 5: once on the Tuesday, I had the ten thousand dollars
• 12:29
  Speaker 5: which I pulled out of the bank and.
• 12:30
  Speaker 1: I had to help them. You got you've got ten thousand.
• 12:32
  Speaker 5: This is to buy gold. And then I went, no.
• 12:35
  Speaker 5: I spoke to that Knight that I know it's not
• 12:36
  Speaker 5: for me. I'm not going to buy gold. And she
• 12:38
  Speaker 5: was one to invest in our project, and I said,
• 12:41
  Speaker 5: you need thirty thousand. I've only got ten right now
• 12:44
  Speaker 5: where she knew it was cashier And I said, and
• 12:47
  Speaker 5: there's no security like this if I lose it, there's
• 12:50
  Speaker 5: no guarantee, there's no equity, there's there's no.
• 12:53
  Speaker 2: Sort of it's not really an investment. It's a charitable donation.
• 12:56
  Speaker 2: By the sound I know, there was.
• 12:57
  Speaker 5: Talk about a return on it, but there was no
• 12:59
  Speaker 5: nothing was pulled up to secure your investment, you know.
• 13:02
  Speaker 5: I normally, if you're investing something, you know, do that,
• 13:04
  Speaker 5: but there's a guarante whatever, directors guarantee or whatever, but
• 13:07
  Speaker 5: none of that. And then I finally said, it's not
• 13:10
  Speaker 5: for me, changed my mind. I'm so sorry, and she
• 13:12
  Speaker 5: was so delightful, No worries, don't worry, it's all good.
• 13:17
  Speaker 5: And I went, that's on Thursday night. I deposited the
• 13:19
  Speaker 5: money back in on Friday, and since Saturday night people
• 13:23
  Speaker 5: come in and asking for cash.
• 13:26
  Speaker 1: So this is only days after you've said I'm not
• 13:28
  Speaker 1: going to invest in.
• 13:29
  Speaker 5: I think it was maybe the next day, but she
• 13:30
  Speaker 5: didn't like she thought I had the money here, but
• 13:32
  Speaker 5: I went before the bank's closed, so maybe I spoke
• 13:34
  Speaker 5: to it Friday because I said, happy Valentine's Day, bla
• 13:36
  Speaker 5: bla blah. Have you had a good day and she said, no,
• 13:39
  Speaker 5: no way, his own hold grudges all good. It didn't
• 13:41
  Speaker 5: work out, you know, business wise, And then I went
• 13:43
  Speaker 5: to the bank croy clothed put the ten thousand dollars back.
• 13:46
  Speaker 2: In yep, Saturday, meya, and she obviously had the address.
• 13:51
  Speaker 5: Oh, she had been here. Yeah, like we were talking
• 13:53
  Speaker 5: about different potential, different business ideas, and you know which
• 13:57
  Speaker 5: is not uncommon, like this is if she does ben
• 14:01
  Speaker 5: management and stuff like that then and I'm in hospitality,
• 14:04
  Speaker 5: like everything's linked. One's all about networking and things like that.
• 14:06
  Speaker 5: So there was there was not anything for me to
• 14:09
  Speaker 5: erase any concern about. However, looking back, I was a
• 14:13
  Speaker 5: bit naive and too trusting.
• 14:17
  Speaker 2: You can say that in hindsight, but at the time
• 14:19
  Speaker 2: you're not thinking that. There's no reason not to trust her.
• 14:21
  Speaker 5: There were mentally involved, There was nothing like that, So
• 14:24
  Speaker 5: there was no reason for me to worry.
• 14:26
  Speaker 1: Okay, so the police came on the night.
• 14:29
  Speaker 5: Yes, so they left. The police and I call triple zero.
• 14:32
  Speaker 5: Police were here apparently really quickly, and it's all a
• 14:35
  Speaker 5: bit of a hazy for me. The neighbors were coming
• 14:38
  Speaker 5: out because of the screaming bits and pieces. They wore
• 14:41
  Speaker 5: hit really quickly, and to their credit, they did go
• 14:44
  Speaker 5: up the stairs. I wouldn't want to do that job.
• 14:45
  Speaker 5: They didn't know who I was up there, and then
• 14:48
  Speaker 5: once they identified themselves a police, and I didn't believe
• 14:50
  Speaker 5: them at the start, and then I saw he kind
• 14:52
  Speaker 5: of put me up. I don't know he put something
• 14:54
  Speaker 5: out because oh it's a police and I was on
• 14:56
  Speaker 5: still on the phone. I dropped the little short sword,
• 14:58
  Speaker 5: sat on the bed and wrapped my arm up with
• 15:00
  Speaker 5: the towel which was piecing out blood. And the rest
• 15:04
  Speaker 5: is They came in, took me downstairs or once you know,
• 15:07
  Speaker 5: son of the ambulance came. Then I wasn't allowed back
• 15:09
  Speaker 5: in the house because they're doing fingerprinting and you know,
• 15:12
  Speaker 5: there's stuff all that sort of things. So all the
• 15:15
  Speaker 5: neighbors got interviewed and then it went to hospital and yeah.
• 15:21
  Speaker 1: And so had they captured the suspects.
• 15:24
  Speaker 5: No, they have no idea there.
• 15:26
  Speaker 2: So my car was stolen, so they took your keys
• 15:29
  Speaker 2: as well.
• 15:30
  Speaker 5: Keys, car, wallet, and my son's PlayStation. But apparently the
• 15:34
  Speaker 5: car was used in multiple different things. You know, I
• 15:37
  Speaker 5: got speeding finds still coming, you know, lots of stuff.
• 15:39
  Speaker 5: And there was an incident in Brighton apparently. So it
• 15:43
  Speaker 5: wasn't an Audi, was it. It was a cheap little
• 15:46
  Speaker 5: they love these Audis. Apparently it was a cheap ASX
• 15:49
  Speaker 5: work car. It was like every five years a new one.
• 15:51
  Speaker 5: That's well, whatever's cheap at the time. You because it
• 15:54
  Speaker 5: battered in hospitality whil in the back and stock and stuff,
• 15:58
  Speaker 5: but there was nothing at all, but they took it.
• 16:00
  Speaker 5: So that was used in apparently a couple different things.
• 16:03
  Speaker 1: Yeah, okay, and that's they haven't caught the suspects.
• 16:06
  Speaker 5: Oh you know, so they have no idea. Oh but
• 16:08
  Speaker 5: they said the police officers who's in charge, said, look,
• 16:11
  Speaker 5: we know the group, but they've got gloves on bellot clubs.
• 16:15
  Speaker 5: They can't pick it from a little bit of footage
• 16:17
  Speaker 5: from neighbors security cameras. But apparently in the car there
• 16:21
  Speaker 5: were some DNA, but I don't know. I've not been
• 16:23
  Speaker 5: updated or any of that. Right.
• 16:24
  Speaker 2: Well, that should come to light later on them when
• 16:26
  Speaker 2: they catch somebody, because the DNA everywhere, i'd imagine. But
• 16:30
  Speaker 2: of course the main point of interest is the woman
• 16:33
  Speaker 2: you believe may have set you up. Yeah, you've got
• 16:35
  Speaker 2: her details, you know where she is?
• 16:37
  Speaker 5: I presume, Yeah, I won't do and police at the hospital.
• 16:40
  Speaker 5: I gave the police my phone. They've got every message,
• 16:43
  Speaker 5: everything that's you know, I just do what I'm told.
• 16:45
  Speaker 5: I'm not a police officer. But as it's gone on,
• 16:48
  Speaker 5: they've been ex police officers said, why are they only
• 16:51
  Speaker 5: trying to get the girl. Now this week when that's
• 16:54
  Speaker 5: your first point at call, we growbro sat it down
• 16:56
  Speaker 5: and said, you know that's that's a bit odd for me.
• 17:01
  Speaker 2: Well, that's the reason I'm here is that I was
• 17:03
  Speaker 2: contacted by x police who said Michael not have very
• 17:05
  Speaker 2: good service out of this, and the detective should have
• 17:08
  Speaker 2: spoken to her early doors because she's now got time
• 17:12
  Speaker 2: to I don't know, distance herself from things, or alert
• 17:15
  Speaker 2: the suspects and so forth. So I presume you've asked
• 17:19
  Speaker 2: police had they spoken to her.
• 17:22
  Speaker 5: I spoke to the police on Friday and they said
• 17:25
  Speaker 5: we're going to try to get her in this week,
• 17:28
  Speaker 5: so Monday, Monday, Tuesday. But the address they had for
• 17:31
  Speaker 5: her is not the address work I picked her up from,
• 17:33
  Speaker 5: or I thought she was staying. But for me to
• 17:37
  Speaker 5: be honest, I thought the police were on it. It's
• 17:39
  Speaker 5: only people, I guess who were police to go. That's
• 17:42
  Speaker 5: not the way. They should have grabbed a sticker in
• 17:43
  Speaker 5: a chair, say do you know you're going to go
• 17:46
  Speaker 5: to jail? Start talking? But I just did what I
• 17:48
  Speaker 5: was told.
• 17:48
  Speaker 2: Because you've got the strong impression when they were here
• 17:51
  Speaker 2: they were saying.
• 17:51
  Speaker 1: Where is the money?
• 17:53
  Speaker 5: Where's the money?
• 17:54
  Speaker 1: So you through the inference that they knew that money
• 17:56
  Speaker 1: was here.
• 17:57
  Speaker 5: Correct, and went to the hospital. And it's all coming together.
• 18:00
  Speaker 5: And I sent to the police officer, this is what happened,
• 18:02
  Speaker 5: you know with this woman. Get them all information that
• 18:05
  Speaker 5: like an hour later and I said, this is just
• 18:08
  Speaker 5: obviously she's being a she knows the address. They didn't
• 18:11
  Speaker 5: come in. They came in to get something. It wasn't
• 18:14
  Speaker 5: just like you know when if someone breaks in and
• 18:16
  Speaker 5: you disturbed them, they shot themselves and piss off. They
• 18:19
  Speaker 5: came in to, you know, to get something that they
• 18:22
  Speaker 5: thought was here.
• 18:23
  Speaker 2: So minded they thought cash was here, if not gold,
• 18:25
  Speaker 2: there was no gold. There was certainly cash, well they
• 18:28
  Speaker 2: were supposed to be cash, but there wasn't.
• 18:30
  Speaker 1: So that's very poor service, very poor service.
• 18:32
  Speaker 2: And I guess they're only now going after this female
• 18:34
  Speaker 2: suspect after you've put some pressure back on the police.
• 18:38
  Speaker 5: No, I haven't put any pressure, but you've asked them,
• 18:40
  Speaker 5: they've told me. I've let them do their job. I'm
• 18:42
  Speaker 5: not a police officer. I don't know how it all works,
• 18:44
  Speaker 5: and there could be a much bigger picture thing that
• 18:48
  Speaker 5: they're working on. I don't know, or I know in
• 18:51
  Speaker 5: my situation, if it was me and there wasn't then
• 18:54
  Speaker 5: we're going off to bikings or whatever. I have no idea.
• 18:56
  Speaker 5: It just seems a bit odd that the girl wasn't
• 18:59
  Speaker 5: taking in straight away, and just you know, because the
• 19:02
  Speaker 5: link was there. These kids were never to my house.
• 19:05
  Speaker 5: She's been to my house. You know, we've had meetings here,
• 19:06
  Speaker 5: we've done you know, brainstorming business ideas. So that seems
• 19:11
  Speaker 5: And on the night the officer he said, oh, they'll
• 19:13
  Speaker 5: probably get you to call her then, just an act,
• 19:16
  Speaker 5: you know, you know, oh, really, guess what happened to
• 19:18
  Speaker 5: me not knowing, you know, not, Then we can get
• 19:22
  Speaker 5: her phone and see who she calls. But then detectives
• 19:25
  Speaker 5: came Monday or whatever it was tuesday, and they were no,
• 19:28
  Speaker 5: don't make don't contact her. If she calls you, you
• 19:31
  Speaker 5: call us and we'll tell you what to say. And
• 19:33
  Speaker 5: I've never heard from her again, and I've not made
• 19:35
  Speaker 5: me in contact because those following instructions are the police.
• 19:37
  Speaker 5: So there may be a bigger thing going on, but
• 19:39
  Speaker 5: it just seems a bit odd.
• 19:41
  Speaker 2: Or it may be a smaller thing called it's all
• 19:43
  Speaker 2: too hard. Well maybe I don't know what you certainly
• 19:48
  Speaker 2: hope not, but how are you feeling, Michael.
• 19:50
  Speaker 5: It's ship I've got, you know, kids who haven't been
• 19:54
  Speaker 5: here for ages and still got another three weeks or
• 19:57
  Speaker 5: so before we moved back in. The kids are, you know,
• 20:00
  Speaker 5: out of whack. My son knows what's going on. My
• 20:03
  Speaker 5: daughter doesn't, so she's you're young, so she thinks there's
• 20:06
  Speaker 5: black mold. Why we can't get back in the house.
• 20:07
  Speaker 1: You told her there's black mold in the house, you can't.
• 20:09
  Speaker 5: They their mum's on on Saturday night, on Valentine's Day,
• 20:13
  Speaker 5: and then her mum knew straight away. My parents knew,
• 20:16
  Speaker 5: so so it's that's the reason. Because if she comes
• 20:19
  Speaker 5: in and now the wall's been painted, the floor's not done.
• 20:22
  Speaker 5: There was The pictures don't do a justice. There was
• 20:24
  Speaker 5: blood everywhere, you know this. I was piercing out blood
• 20:28
  Speaker 5: like this can't happened right at the start, and it
• 20:30
  Speaker 5: was like.
• 20:31
  Speaker 2: That, Yeah, it's a pretty serious scar. You you'll have
• 20:34
  Speaker 2: that for life. I'd imagine there's probably about I don't know,
• 20:37
  Speaker 2: ten or twenty stitches there that you've had and it's
• 20:39
  Speaker 2: still healing well.
• 20:40
  Speaker 5: My friend took a photo of it, and I didn't
• 20:42
  Speaker 5: see it because I'm a bit, you know, I'm like
• 20:45
  Speaker 5: a bit my own blood, but it was massive and
• 20:47
  Speaker 5: that happened to start. So five minutes of me piercing
• 20:49
  Speaker 5: out blood, do you know? There was blood everywhere, you know,
• 20:51
  Speaker 5: and theves to the PORTMA, I'm so angry. I'm saying,
• 20:53
  Speaker 5: you're going to fucking die here, mate, You're going to
• 20:55
  Speaker 5: fucking die, and I'll flinging my blood. I don't even
• 20:57
  Speaker 5: make it's just to this other next level, like around
• 21:01
  Speaker 5: the corner. So there's blood's flooded everywhere. I never got
• 21:05
  Speaker 5: him at all, but the short sort of did really
• 21:08
  Speaker 5: helped me because it was blocking his machine.
• 21:10
  Speaker 1: Yeah, certainly it was.
• 21:11
  Speaker 2: Now you've told me how your kids are feeling, You've
• 21:12
  Speaker 2: told me how the people around you, how are you
• 21:14
  Speaker 2: feeling that.
• 21:15
  Speaker 5: I think I'm okay because I don't. For some reason,
• 21:21
  Speaker 5: I'm not My psychologists in the family, and I was
• 21:24
  Speaker 5: talking to them about it, and in my mind I
• 21:27
  Speaker 5: kind of think I didn't lose. So it's a different mentality,
• 21:31
  Speaker 5: you know, I was. I wasn't really I was a victim,
• 21:34
  Speaker 5: but it wasn't like, oh, what do you want to
• 21:36
  Speaker 5: take me if you want? These kids had someone stand
• 21:39
  Speaker 5: up to them and I just wake up going every
• 21:42
  Speaker 5: morning if I could feel shit, don't you feel shit?
• 21:44
  Speaker 5: I I'll talk to my friend and stuff and they're
• 21:47
  Speaker 5: you know, you go ups and downs, but every day
• 21:49
  Speaker 5: to thank god the kids weren't here. I'm just so
• 21:52
  Speaker 5: blessed that the kids went here, because that would have
• 21:54
  Speaker 5: ended up again.
• 21:55
  Speaker 2: You're going to other people and talk about you because
• 21:58
  Speaker 2: you were a victim, and the impact of this will
• 22:01
  Speaker 2: take a fair while to settle really into you.
• 22:05
  Speaker 1: Have you had a chance to talk to somebody, to actually.
• 22:08
  Speaker 5: Clinical psychologist, Yes, he said, look, he could hit you
• 22:12
  Speaker 5: later on, he goes, but you didn't lose like the
• 22:16
  Speaker 5: sort of you got a carton and it was bad
• 22:18
  Speaker 5: and fucking shit. And I'm fine here in the house
• 22:21
  Speaker 5: until the sun goes down and then we go back
• 22:23
  Speaker 5: to my parents' house if the sun goes down, and
• 22:25
  Speaker 5: then I freak out, you know, if I go like
• 22:28
  Speaker 5: early anytime, if I'm having like upstairs, having a shower,
• 22:31
  Speaker 5: like I just don't want to feel vulnerable. You know,
• 22:33
  Speaker 5: my friend will be here down here just otherwise I'm
• 22:37
  Speaker 5: just to have someone charge into your house. Is it
• 22:41
  Speaker 5: freaked me out? He was like, I don't want to
• 22:43
  Speaker 5: be in that position, like if I'm having a shower
• 22:45
  Speaker 5: and then someone comes around the corner. So there's it's
• 22:48
  Speaker 5: just that through me because these homes.
• 22:50
  Speaker 2: Are not set up to be fortresses, to be functional homes.
• 22:54
  Speaker 2: You park the car at the front, you've got a
• 22:56
  Speaker 2: nice aspect in the back, glass doors, you know, a
• 22:58
  Speaker 2: little bit of a fence there, not much. So how
• 23:01
  Speaker 2: do you feel about remaining here long term after this
• 23:04
  Speaker 2: with your children?
• 23:05
  Speaker 5: Well, well, I'm getting like, we're getting security doors, We're
• 23:07
  Speaker 5: getting this film on the glass that you can't break through,
• 23:10
  Speaker 5: which stick a hammer through and a glass doesn't break.
• 23:14
  Speaker 5: I'm getting roller shutters, there's cameras, There's things that are happening,
• 23:19
  Speaker 5: and I don't know until I move back. But I'm
• 23:21
  Speaker 5: not moving back with the kids till that happens. Their
• 23:23
  Speaker 5: mother is really concerned. So I don't know when I
• 23:29
  Speaker 5: move back in, and my first night, I'm not going
• 23:32
  Speaker 5: to bring the kids in the first night. I'm just
• 23:33
  Speaker 5: going to see how I feel. And then if you're
• 23:35
  Speaker 5: going to sell the house and move somewhere else, you've
• 23:37
  Speaker 5: got to do.
• 23:37
  Speaker 2: We now do because also in these situations I've dealt
• 23:41
  Speaker 2: with people, this sort of thing is quite a lot
• 23:43
  Speaker 2: over the years. It's not just the event, it stays
• 23:46
  Speaker 2: with them, it's how they're treated afterwards. And if there
• 23:49
  Speaker 2: isn't a proper level of support from detectives or other agencies,
• 23:53
  Speaker 2: that that can be part of the long term stress
• 23:56
  Speaker 2: of this. So it's important that the police do the
• 24:00
  Speaker 2: right thing and follow up on this because otherwise you'll
• 24:03
  Speaker 2: be wearing it, in my opinion, the future.
• 24:05
  Speaker 5: Yeah, so this is all he grabs me. So I
• 24:08
  Speaker 5: don't know what police should be doing or should not
• 24:10
  Speaker 5: be doing, other than ex police telling me they would
• 24:13
  Speaker 5: have tackled it a different way and they're never going
• 24:17
  Speaker 5: to get them. That's that's you know, I would have
• 24:19
  Speaker 5: grabbed the girl though, straight up. That's yeah. To me,
• 24:22
  Speaker 5: it's a no brainer. That's that's silly.
• 24:24
  Speaker 1: I'm really sorry that you've had to suffer this.
• 24:26
  Speaker 2: And as I said before, the worst thing is if
• 24:29
  Speaker 2: you suffer poor police work where the proper checks, the
• 24:32
  Speaker 2: proper inquiries are not made, and you need they need
• 24:35
  Speaker 2: to eliminate the possibility that she was involved in this.
• 24:38
  Speaker 1: So hopefully that happens. But thank you for sharing this
• 24:41
  Speaker 1: harrowing experience today, Michael.
• 24:43
  Speaker 6: It works, as Michael, you just heard what's happened in
• 24:52
  Speaker 6: his home here and this is the face of the
• 24:54
  Speaker 6: breakdown of law and.
• 24:55
  Speaker 1: Order in this city.
• 24:56
  Speaker 2: But it's not just in Melbourne, it's other places as well,
• 24:59
  Speaker 2: and young people running around with machetes.
• 25:01
  Speaker 1: We had this ridiculous machete band in.
• 25:03
  Speaker 2: Victoria and that multi me dollar waste of time and
• 25:06
  Speaker 2: machete amnesty where people were invited to put their blades
• 25:09
  Speaker 2: inside bins directly outside police stations.
• 25:12
  Speaker 1: It didn't work. What's the next step?
• 25:15
  Speaker 2: Who has to suffer this sort of a drama before
• 25:17
  Speaker 2: there's true action taken. But I think most of all
• 25:21
  Speaker 2: this story demonstrates just poor police work. And it's lucky
• 25:24
  Speaker 2: that Michael had a couple of ex Victoria police detective,
• 25:26
  Speaker 2: very good guys who are pushing this and I'm very
• 25:29
  Speaker 2: glad to have told this story. Maybe there other people
• 25:31
  Speaker 2: out there who've suffered similar things. I guess you can
• 25:33
  Speaker 2: call crime Stoppers one. It had a triple three, triple zero.
• 25:36
  Speaker 2: But if you don't trust the cops, and maybe this
• 25:38
  Speaker 2: story makes you not trust the cops, send me an
• 25:40
  Speaker 2: email Adam Shander writer at gmail dot com and I'll
• 25:43
  Speaker 2: see what I can do for you.
• 25:46
  Speaker 1: This has been Adam Chan for Real Crime, Thanks for listening.
• 26:04
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• 26:08
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• 26:11
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