A MAN believed to have been involved in several thefts and attempted thefts has escaped arrest after a Casuarina local chased him for 40 minutes from Casuarina to Tweed Heads in the early hours of Friday, July 20.
Casuarina man Robbie Miles had almost $10,000 worth of Milwaukee power tools stolen from a toolbox in his work trailer just after 4am.
The culprit was seen ten minutes earlier in a Silver Navara single cab low rider utility along with a White Holden Colorado with a black bonnet attempting to break into a shipping container.
Mr Miles was awake with his wife and six-month-old baby at 4.10am when his wife went to put the bins out for collection and discovered the man rummaging through Mr Miles’ trailer.
The man fled in the Navara and Mr Miles got the police on the phone and headed north on Casuarina Way after him.
He saw the Navara a few blocks away down a side street, either Bronte Place or Longboard Circuit.
“He saw me and took off down the street, then he threw on his brakes and reversed really fast backwards and so I had to reverse as well,” Mr Miles said.
“Then he did a burn-out and took off and we travelled south on Casuarina Way and he was throwing stuff out his car window – it looked like beer bottles.
“We turned onto Tweed Coast Road near Coles and he went speeding north up the road and then he pulled over, did a U-turn and sped straight at me.”
Mr Miles gave the police the car registration details and they told him it was registered on the Sunshine Coast and was not reported as stolen.
Mr Miles said he didn’t know if the man was armed and tried to keep a safe distance from him while giving also directions to the police.
“I thought for sure he was going to ram me,” he said.
“I was talking to the cops the whole time and they wanted to know where we were.
“The dispatch officer said there were five police cars on their way.”
Mr Miles said the thief then came up next to him and threw a handful of nails or screws at his ute then did a U-turn.
“He dropped behind me then came up beside me again and he was screaming and swearing at me then he threw some LED spotlights at me.”
The lights hit the new car’s signage which Mr Miles had just had done to promote his business, causing considerable damage.
“Then he overtook me and sped out towards the highway,” Mr Miles said.
“The cops were saying obviously you need to obey the road rules but then he’d stop and reverse and try to ram me again.”
Mr Miles said that when they pulled onto the highway off the Chinderah roundabout the thief stopped in the middle lane and started reversing back at him then took off again.
“Then we got up to the Fingal exit and he did the same again,” he said.
“I had to go up on to the median strip at the on-ramp area and do a U-turn because he was coming for me.”
Mr Miles said the thief kept turning his lights off as they raced towards Tweed Heads.
“He went past the South Tweed Heads exit then he turned down the on-ramp (coming up from Banora) and went down the wrong way,” he said.
“I stayed up the top on the highway and I stopped and looked down at him.
“He was throwing bricks at me and then I had to reverse away from him so my car didn’t get hit.”
“He came up the highway and reversed up and rammed me.
“I was still in reverse so fortunately he hit the nudge bar and then he went to turn into the on-ramp again to drive up it the wrong way.”
Mr Miles said the thief got spooked when he spotted a vehicle that looked like a police car, but turned out to be a taxi and drove up the on-ramp towards him.
“He turned around and came back up the highway and took off but he was too far in front and going too fast for me to catch,” he said.
“I’m not sure whether he took the Kennedy Drive or Tugun exit or went into Queensland.”
Mr Miles said that as he drove past Tweed Heads the police told him to hang up and call 000 to get the Queensland police.
“They said they had been briefed and had cars coming my way,” he said.
“I was shaking like a leaf.”
Mr Miles said he drove up to Burleigh but didn’t see the silver Navara or any police so drove back to Tweed Heads Police Station to file a report.
“If I realised the police weren’t going to make it I wouldn’t have kept following him,” Mr Miles said.
“I was just waiting for them to arrive to catch him.
“When I finally got home I walked in the door and my wife just burst into tears.”
Mr Miles, a champion ironman, who won an Under 19s Australian title with his Cudgen SLSC teammates, said they stole all his Milwaukee tools.
“He got a reciprocating saw, a circular saw, a multi-tool finishing gun, a jigsaw, a hammer drill, a planer, a drop-saw and about four or five batteries for the tools,” Mr Miles said.
“I keep finding more things missing that were in there.
“I had a brand new work truck that only had 1,000 kilometres on it and I had just paid for signage on it a week ago and that cost $700.”
Mrs Miles had been going through invoices for the insurance company and said there were probably around $10,000 worth of tools taken.
“I had literally just started my first build on my new building company, Robby Miles Custom Build and having a young family and a mortgage makes it a real blow,” he said.
“We have to pay for new signage and excess for the tools and car and that’s another $1,300 and we are getting more security put in and it all adds up.”
Police response
Tweed Byron Police District Chief Inspector Gary Cowan said police had attempted to find the culprit but had been unable to locate him.
A report was sent to Queensland Police to follow up and Ch Insp Cowan said they would be back in touch with Mr Miles if they heard anything.
He also said once a report was filed in NSW it was automatically entered into a nationwide database, so northern NSW residents did not need to file reports in Queensland as well.
Ch Insp Cowan said a trailer was stolen from Beech Lane in Casuarina the same night and was later found at the Casuarina Rugby fields.
The locks had been cut open with a bolt cutter and a compressor had been stolen.
There were numerous reports on social media of attempted thefts and thefts in the Casuarina area early on Friday, July 20.
A man had thousands-of-dollars worth of tools including nail guns, saws and Milwaukee cordless tools stolen from a trailer in Pottsville the same night.
A Cabarita resident also told The Weekly someone had tried to break into his toolbox on Saturday night.
Wife shaken by theft
Mr Miles’ wife said when the thief took off from their house she ran out and got a photo while her husband grabbed his car keys and gave chase.
“About three minutes later, so I tried to call him but the phone was engaged,” she said.
Mrs Miles called the police and told them she was worried for her husband’s safety and that she had two babies at home.
“They told me they just had confirmation that Rob was on the phone to triple zero and that they were just trying to get police to Rob,” she said.
“They said they would send a car to the house right away.
“I was running around making sure the whole house was locked up and pretty well in distress, just shaking, thinking, where’s my husband, he could be in a ditch somewhere and this guy has a gone to his head – I didn’t know.”
Mrs Miles kept trying to call her husband and it kept going to message bank.
“I rang my husband’s mum and they drove up from Ballina but it took them 40 minutes so I was here for 40 minutes just pacing, not sure if I should be out the front or stay inside,” she said. “It was intense.”
Mrs Miles said she finally got through to her husband at about 5am when he told her he had lost the thief.
“It was very, very, scary,” she said.
“I keep replaying peeking around the corner and seeing the guy there going through our stuff and that’s the biggest thing.
“If the baby hadn’t woken then who knows, would he have taken more or would he try to get in the house. It just makes you feel unsafe.”
Mrs Miles said it came as a major blow as her husband had just started his first business, Robby Miles Custom Build.
“I keep replaying what Rob told me,” she said.
“Last night we went out and he showed me some skid marks on Tweed Coast Road where the guy drove at him and that for me is the scariest thing.
“As soon as I saw him I was just balling my eyes out.”
Mrs Miles said she couldn’t sleep on Friday night because she was imagining the man outside her bedroom window.
“I was thinking that if someone actually broke into the house I don’t know if I could live here anymore.”
