Riverina Police District charges four teenagers after spate of property offences across Wagga

Riverina Police Detective Chief Inspector Winston Woodward said officers put together Strikeforce Olwen, tracking and monitoring four young people identified as suspects.

"As a result, four search warrants were executed yesterday at four young persons' premises, one 14-year-old, two 15-year-olds and one 16-year-old," Inspector Woodward said.

"As a result of those search warrants some property and a number of exhibits were recovered and, we will allege, has linked those four young people to a number of offences relating to stolen motor vehicles, property and fraud."

A 15-year-old boy was charged with 10 offences and will appear before a children's court, while a 14-year-old boy was charged with four offences.

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The other two teenagers were dealt with under the Young Offenders Act.

Inspector Woodward said police will ensure measures are taken to help the youths "turn their lives around".

"We have done a good job in identifying four young people and hopefully we can get some good resources to help them, which will be good as a preventative measure," he said.

"You [have] got to remember the ages of these young people, we're hoping that with the intervention that we can provide, and we can provide some from the PCYC and some other agencies in the community, that we can turn these young people's lives around before they commit other offences."

Inspector Woodward pleaded with the public to take some simple steps to protect their valuables from opportunistic thieves.

"I need the people of Wagga and surrounding areas to lock their doors. Lock your garages, lock your cars and take your valuables out of your cars," Inspector Woodward said.

"These are things that I do before I go to bed and I know a lot of people do, but it is surprising to know how many people are leaving their cars and homes unlocked then going to bed at night and in some cases, they have woken up and there is a person in their home in the process of stealing.

"There's a lot of others out there in the community getting about the streets at night."

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