Ram raids are usually a late-night crime. The run of incidents police described on Tuesday 17 February happened in daylight, across two sides of Melbourne, inside about two hours.
What police allege happened
According to a Victoria Police release, reproduced by Bayside News in March:
- Narre Warren, about 11.30am. Masked offenders got out of a Toyota at a shopping centre on Overland Drive and approached a jewellery store, allegedly carrying a hammer. They did not try to go in.
- Berwick, about midday. Three masked males, allegedly armed with hammers and bats, went into a jewellery store on High Street. Police allege they assaulted the shopkeeper, smashed glass cabinets, took jewellery and left in a waiting Toyota Kluger.
- Altona North, just after 1.30pm. Police allege the same stolen Toyota was reversed into the roller door of a store on The Circle. Three people were inside. The offenders couldn't get in and left with nothing.
Police allege the Kluger had been stolen from Murrumbeena on 14 February. The Berwick shopkeeper was reported to have been injured, though the police release and trade press differ on how seriously. In early March, police arrested three men aged 18 and 19 and charged them with a combined 48 offences, including armed robbery, assault and theft of a motor vehicle. Those charges have not been tested in court.
Two different kinds of attack
It's worth separating what happened in Berwick from what was tried in Altona North, because they call for different defences.
In Berwick, the store was open. The offenders allegedly walked in through the door customers use. That is an armed robbery, and the defences against it are about people: staff training, duress alarms, display cases that resist a hammer for long enough, cameras, and good relationships with neighbouring traders. A bollard outside does nothing about someone walking in through an open door, and anyone who tells you otherwise is selling something.
In Altona North, the vehicle itself was the tool. The car was reversed into a roller door with the aim of breaking through it. That is a ram raid in the plain sense, and it is the kind of attack physical barriers are designed for.
Why reverse?
Reversing into a door shows up again and again in Melbourne ram raid reports. There are practical reasons. The rear of an SUV is less likely to set off airbags or crush the engine bay, so the car can still be driven away. The driver is already facing the getaway direction. And a tow bar, if fitted, puts a concentrated steel point on the door.
A roller door is designed to keep people out, not to absorb a two-tonne vehicle. Some will buckle at the bottom rail and give way. Some, like the one at The Circle, hold. Which one you have depends on the door, its guides and what it's fixed to, and most owners don't know until the day it's tested.
Keeping the vehicle off the door
The more reliable approach is to stop the vehicle reaching the door at all. Bollards set in front of a roller door, on the outside, mean a reversing car meets steel posts anchored in the ground rather than a sheet of curved metal. A few practical points:
- Distance matters. Bollards set slightly forward of the door stop the car before it touches it, rather than taking the hit together with the door.
- Spacing matters. Gaps need to be narrow enough that a car can't get between them, while customers and staff can still walk through.
- Removable bollards suit doors that need vehicle access, such as a loading door used for deliveries. They lift out in the morning and lock back in at close.
- Footings matter most. A bollard is only as strong as what holds it in the ground.
We haven't seen the Altona North store and don't know how its door was built. What the incident does show is the sequence: a car can arrive, reverse and leave within a minute or two. If anything is going to stop it, it has to be in place before it arrives.
For jewellers and other high-value retailers
Jewellery stores, phone shops, pharmacies and tobacconists face both risks: armed robbery during trading hours, and vehicle attacks on the frontage, usually after hours. A sensible plan treats them separately. One set of measures protects the people inside during the day. Another protects the frontage, especially doors and glass that face a road or car park a vehicle can line up on.
In February, by the police account, one door that held meant three people inside and an offending group that left with nothing.