WHAT should have been a happy birthday celebration for Sean Ross and his family, was spoiled by crime at Berea Park on Sunday.
Sean was celebrating his daughter's first birthday party in Berea Park when he and his family and friends witnessed two incidents of theft within one hour.
“We live opposite the park and observe everything that goes on there. It is a well-maintained park, but there is a tremendous vagrant problem. We have complained to the police and the councillor, but the problem isn't going away,” he said.
Sean said the vagrants slept in the park and that opportunistic, petty crime was a big problem related to this.
“On Sunday we went to the park for my daughter's party at around 11am. There were about 40 people at the party and another 30 or so people at another party nearby. Within the first half an hour, we saw a vagrant steal a bike off a car at the top of the park and run away. We were quite far away, so we couldn't do anything. Within another half an hour, we saw two ladies walking about 150 metres away from us. My uncle saw a man walk past and grab a necklace and pendant off one of their necks and he carried on walking as if nothing had happened,” he said.
He said the women just froze and didn't know what to do, but his uncle and other men from the two groups walked towards the man.
“He got apprehensive and bolted. The men went after him in a car, but I'm not sure what happened. It was traumatic. This was my daughter's first birthday party and we had a lot of children and other guests. This is just petty crime, but God forbid a jogger is raped or something by these men. I understand that it's a broader social economic problem, but we just want to be safe in the park,” he said.
