Is gang violence on the rise in Melbourne?

Is gang violence on the rise in Melbourne?

A furious Melbourne man has spent an eye-watering amount of money to protect his property from gangs threatening his family.

Chelsea resident Frank and his partner Jade have hired armed guards at a cost of $1000 per day, following a string of confrontations with gang members outside their home in the city’s southeast.

“I’m not gonna stand and just let it happen,” Frank told Nine’s A Current Affair.

He said he initially confronted the youths with a baseball bat after they smashed his car and made threatening comments towards him and his partner.

CCTV footage shows Frank surrounded by a large group of youths, brandishing the bat to get rid of them.

He claimed they later returned in larger numbers.

“(The bat) deterred them for a little bit, but when they came back — how do you stop 30 blokes having a go at you?”

The couple alleged the group threw glass bottles and furniture at Frank and his family, with his partner Jade getting injured.

“They come in numbers and they’re just so angry,” she said. “They say they’re going to kill us — really vulgar things.”

The issues with youth crime were initially around the St Kilda foreshore, but an increased police presence and the installation of new CCTV cameras has seen the violence move across the coast to the suburb of Chelsea and surrounding areas.

“Members of the public can hire private security guards to monitor a private residence,” Victoria Police said in a statement.

“The security guards would obviously need to be appropriately licensed (in this case Armed Guard) to be armed with pistols.”