Gun-wielding carjacker caught after crime spree
Date: August 12 2016
Jorge Branco
Police have arrested a man they believe was involved in a string of offences throughout south-east Queensland on Friday morning.
The man allegedly stole a bread truck in Birkdale, injuring the driver, before driving to Boronia Heights where he stole a vehicle from a family in Warana Court at gunpoint.
The man then allegedly drove to Borallon, west of Ipswich, where he is accused of stealing another vehicle and driving toward the Lockyer Valley.
There he allegedly dumped the vehicle on train tracks and fled on foot.
A coal train has then struck the vehicle before police arrested the man a short distance away.
Police are also investigating whether the man may have been involved in incidents on farms in the Lockyer Valley.
EARLIER
A man is on the run after stealing a bread truck and sedan at gunpoint and threatening a family during a crime spree stretching more than 35 kilometres south of Brisbane.
Police said the 32-year-old truck driver suffered minor injuries as he was pushed out of the vehicle about 2.30am at a service station at Birkdale, on the bayside.
The thief, armed with a shotgun, fled from the Birkdale Road business and wasn't sighted again until the truck was found in a Logan street almost 40 kilometres to the south-west.
After dumping the truck, police said the man forced his way into a home on Warana Court at Boronia Heights and threatened someone inside with a gun, before stealing a silver sedan and driving off.
The grandfather of children inside the home spoke to The Today Show about what his relatives went through.
"They heard a noise, a revving, out the front of the house apparently and they got up to have a look and next thing they heard a bang," he said.
"They'd (the offender) punched the side light of the glass in beside the door with the butt of a rifle apparently."
He'd first tried to approach another house in the street but a dog scared him off, police said.
She warned the public to call police if they saw the man and avoid approaching him.
The silver 2012 Honda City had number plates 806TCK and the man was described as caucasian, aged in his 40s and about 178 centimetres tall with a moderate build, shaved head and face.