A SOUTH LAKE resident bashed after thwarting would-be car thieves on the weekend says police who attended the scene treated him like an “inconvenience” rather than a crime victim.

John, who didn’t want his surname published for fear of reprisals, is livid his attack was apparently not even logged onto the WA police database.

“I felt I was treated as an inconvenience pretty much by the attending officer for reporting it because my injuries weren’t bad enough,” the Bolwarra Heights resident told the Herald. “Apparently there needs to be stitches or broken bones.”

John, who ended up with swelling and minor abrasions, says he rang Fremantle police the next day and an officer agreed it should have been recorded, which meant giving up another hour to re-tell his story.

He’d been taking out his garbage late Sunday evening when he spotted two teenagers trying to break into cars.

Upon confronting the pair a third boy emerged from hiding and hit him in the head with a blunt object. Two others also joined the fray.

“Not knowing what to do since I couldn’t belt the little buggers, admittedly I panicked and just yelled loudly for assistance and sheltered my face from their kicking, punching and whatever it was the first attacker kept clubbing my head with.”

John says the teens kept trying to steal his wallet and phone during the attack.

He managed to escape to a neighbour’s house where he called 000, but says by the time he’d got through giving his details, the gang was already walking up the street laughing at him.

The South Lake resident reckons it’s part of a major spike in crime in the area.

A burglary in his house a couple of months ago is still being investigated, and on the night before the attack he’d chased a trespasser from his backyard and bailed him up in bushes at the end of his cul-de-sac. Cockburn council says it has increased CoSafe patrols to the area.

by STEVE GRANT