Demand for steel fortifications in Halls Creek is so high the outback Kimberley town's main supplier is rushed off his feet.
Halls Creek is in the grip of a youth crime wave, described as "relentless" and with brazen acts now being carried out in daylight.
This is despite the multi-million dollar Kimberley police operation Regional Shield, which has had its effectiveness questioned by the WA Police Union last week.
"It's always kids. It's relentless... there's no repercussions or consequences," said Wesley Bambling, who has run a steel fabrication business in the town for five years.
The welder and metal fabricator said steel doors, gates, cages and barricades accounted for almost 70 per cent of his business.
"All sorts of business or government organisations, especially those with houses … I've had to put steel bars across houses to stop [the youth] getting in," Mr Bambling said.
"I'm about to put up new gates and security doors — actually frames bolted in front of the doors — with a fabricated door that's made out of 50 RHS [a type of steel bar] to stop the kids trashing and breaking into that place."
"It's got to be bulletproof. It has to be bulletproof."
And while the barricade business might be booming, Mr Bambling's industrial yard has also been broken into four times.
"I've been nowhere near as badly hit as other businesses," he said.
But his three guard dogs have often been injured.
"They try to hit them through the fence. You'll find bits of steel laying around the yard when you come to work in the morning where they've been trying to get in."
The joy ride where the 'town cheered'
Raymond Simpson, who's lived in Halls Creek for a decade, is fortifying his house with steel doors costing thousands of dollars, and has slept with furniture propped against all the doors after three recent break-ins.
In one burglary in November his car keys were stolen and the following night his vehicle taken, despite being blocked in, and driven through locked gates.
"My car went on a four-hour joy ride, for which, believe it or not, there were people coming out onto the street with chairs and cups of coffee to watch the show," Mr Simpson said.
"You could hear where the car was, you could see the plumes of dust. They were having a great time jumping dirt mounds and going through gullies.
"And the town was cheering them on."
Mr Simpson's ute was later written off by his insurance company.
"It's a nightly occurrence. In the past two weeks there has probably been two nights that I haven't been woken up by screeching car tyres.
"And people joke now, 'Are there any cars left in Halls?'"
Redirecting stolen cars a 'crazy, insane' idea
The chief executive of the Shire of Halls Creek, Phillip Cassell, has proposed a plan that would see stolen cars diverted to a cleared block on the outskirts of town.
He said the plan would alter the town's infrastructure using barriers and spikes to push vehicles driven recklessly by juveniles into the area.
"We're basically trying to eliminate the possibility of these cars, having access routes through the communities or through the town," Mr Cassell said.
"If we can present an option for them to follow a natural pathway away from the communities out into the open plains, I think it'll be a lot safer for our members of community, but also a lot safer for these kids."
But Mr Simpson was scathing of the idea, describing it as "the most crazy insane thing" he'd ever heard.
"As far as I'm concerned that is condoning the behaviour. What about the victims in this?" he said.
"It's like the authorities are admitting that we can't stop it, so let's go and bulldoze some land outside of town to help them."
He said the flow-on effect of the crime spree was felt in unexpected ways.
"Where I work I haven't had a stock delivery for two weeks now because the forklift that delivers my weekly delivery, its keys were stolen along with the car from the transport yard, which was driven around and eventually rolled."
Mr Simpson said he had rocks thrown at him by kids while walking to work. Rocks had also been thrown at customers and at work vehicles.
He said lack of sleep and extra stress was taking a toll and making him re-evaluate his future in the town "for mental health reasons."
"Having kids hurl rocks at you – it makes you fearful, yes."
