After her menswear shop was rammed by a car in the dead of night in what's been described as a "senseless, pointless" attack, Darlene Chin was asked if she was going to leave Darwin.
Staring down a damage bill in the tens of thousands, and facing the jittery aftershocks that come with being a victim of crime, Ms Chin could be easily justified to leave her long-standing business.
But she's not going to go.
Nor is she going to cow to those who smashed her front windows by affixing ungainly roller shutters.
"I suppose if I had ever thought that this could happen, I would never have put the glass in in the first place – but this is my town too," Ms Chin said.
"I want it to be good. I don't want to have to lock my bedroom door at night."
Standing by the wooden planks covering her smashed front windows, the shopfront shattered by a reversing vehicle, Ms Chin said she wouldn't "succumb to the worst parts of our community".
"Someone asked me yesterday, 'Does this make me feel like I want to pack up and leave town?'" Ms Chin said.
"No, no it doesn't – and I know [some] people do feel like that. But I'm going to tough it out."
Ms Chin is currently celebrating her 30th year in business in the territory capital, and said she'd received kindness from both friends and strangers in the wake of the weekend incident.
Two teenagers have been charged over the ram raid, with police conducting further investigations.
Property Council survey indicates more are considering leaving
According to the Property Council of Australia's NT division, Ms Chin is an exception to a growing trend in the territory.
Property Council NT executive officer Ruth Palmer said her organisation had conducted a survey of 462 businesses, the majority of which resided across Darwin, Palmerston and Katherine.
"One of the questions that we asked in our survey was 'How safe do you feel in the Northern Territory?'" Ms Palmer said.
"Over 80 per cent of people said that they currently do not feel safe, with over 60 per cent of people saying that they are considering leaving the Northern Territory, due to the crime."
The jurisdiction has made headlines over its crime problems for months, following social unrest in regional towns like Alice Springs and Katherine, and a series of violent incidents in Darwin.
An analysis of long-term NT Police data earlier this year by the ABC revealed that violent assaults were at their highest rate across the jurisdiction in at least 15 years.
NT Chief Minister Natasha Fyles said on Tuesday that her "heart goes out" to Ms Chin "and any business or home that has been subject to vandalism, crime [or] antisocial behaviour".
"It seems very senseless and pointless and that's incredibly frustrating," Ms Fyles said.
She told ABC Radio Darwin that stamping out crime remained an "absolute priority" for her government.
Opposition Leader Lia Finocchiaro said on Tuesday that the CLP would move to introduce new legislation to parliament pushing for harsher penalties against those who commit ram raids.
