Kieran O'Dwyer (left) and Adrian Abella (right) outside their homes in Torquay. Credit:Drew Ryan "I went out on the balcony ...I saw the guys, one of them had already got into the car across the road. He was ransacking that," he said. "Another one was trying [neighbour] Kieran's car. I screamed out to them ...they jumped into a car that was [already] running, the driver was waiting for them, and took off." Once happily ensconced in the town's sleepy seaside safety, the town's residents say they are increasingly falling prey to brazen crime. Latest Crime Statistics Agency figures show, in the year to March 2016, crime in the postcode 3228, which includes Torquay, Jan Juc, Bells Beach and Bellbrae, went up 42.2 per cent, for a total of 991 incidents.

The data also reveals the seaside haven now account for almost two-thirds of all crime in the Surf Coast region - up from just over half last year. And locals think they know where to place the blame: Geelong. Neighbourhood Watch co-ordinator David Cheatley said most of the crime was theft from motor vehicles and houses left unlocked. He said "young people" coming down from Geelong on weekends were responsible for the crime. "We are a rural area, we trusted people in the past," Mr Cheatley said. "We have got to make sure that when we leave our properties we secure it, because we do have people who are prepared to take advantage of our casual lifestyle."

Last year in November, there were media reports about teens breaking into Geelong footballer Corey Enright's residence while the star, his pregnant wife and young son slept in the Torquay house. The burglars stole the keys to the family's two cars and drove the vehicle away. Alarmed by the growing incidents, resident John De Witt started a community Facebook page in June with an aim to lobby the state government for extra police. Mr De Witt also runs The Quay Residents Association page. He says both the pages have been inundated with posts about home invasions and car thefts. South Barwon Liberal member Andrew Katos said Torquay was no longer a "sleepy, surfing town" and needed more police.

Early in August, Mr Katos held a community safety forum and called for more frontline police as well as a 24-hour police station. "Torquay is a reasonably affluent area, so they are very much the target of these gangs of criminal coming from Geelong's northern suburbs, some coming from Melbourne," he said. Mr Katos said he was told there were only eight police officers covering all of the Surf Coast. Police Minister Lisa Neville would not comment on that figure, but said they had boosted their frontline response in Torquay with a dedicated night patrol targeting hotspots. She said 17 police custody officers working in Geelong were helping to "free up frontline police", while the new police funded in the latest Victorian Budget would help support the Geelong region.

Residents Association secretary Sue O'Shanassy said the town had a "huge police station", but thieves knew it wasn't manned 24/7. "When I moved here ...in 1971 ...there was a police station with a resident police person even when there were only a couple of thousand people here," Ms O'Shanassy said. "Now we don't, and there are 16000 people. It seems quite ridiculous to me." Torquay Commerce and Tourism president Barrie Sutherland said he had begun to feel afraid of going out at night. "We don't want Torquay to be known for crime," Mr Sutherland said.

"We want Torquay to be known as a family holiday destination like it always has been, a safe place where you can walk the streets on a warm summer evening ...without any fear or intimidation that anything adverse could happen to you." Mr Abella, who moved from Melbourne with his young family three years ago, said the crime made him feel "unsafe". He said what attracted him to the town was also what drew the criminals. "That's one of the reason why we moved down here, that it is a nice place," Mr Abella said. "Unfortunately, criminals have cottoned on to the fact that people are more relaxed ...it has become more of a target."