Two 13-year-old boys are due to face court accused of the armed robbery of two older teens on the Gold Coast.
The younger boys allegedly threatened the older teens with a knife and stole their e-bikes, police said on Thursday.
The alleged victims, boys aged 14 and 16, told police they were robbed outside a McDonald’s on Australia Ave in Broadbeach about 9.15pm on Wednesday.
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The two younger boys allegedly approached the older teenagers, who were not known to them, before pulling out a knife, threatening them, and demanding their e-bikes.
They then rode off on the bikes, police allege.
Police began a search and soon arrested two suspects in nearby Southport, one on Queen St and a second boy on Jane St.
Both e-bikes were found and recovered, police said.
Police charged the two 13-year-old boys, from Slacks Creek and Logan Central, with two counts each of armed robbery.
Both boys are due to appear in Southport Children’s Court on Thursday.
The arrests come amid Operation Yankee Forge, a six-month statewide Queensland Police initiative to enhance policing activities to reduce victim numbers and strengthen community safety.
In less than two months of the operation, there have been 191 juvenile robbery charges, 1543 juvenile unlawful entry charges and 820 juvenile unauthorised use of motor vehicle charges.
But recent crime sprees involving young offenders are also raising questions about whether the Crisafulli Government’s Adult Crime Adult Time laws are working, and how they’re being implemented.
Rochedale South Neighbourhood Watch founder Damion Douglass recently told 7NEWS communities were not seeing the “boots on the ground” approach that was promised in parliament.
“We’re not seeing what was offered at the table,” he said in the wake of a violent home invasion in which a couple were left fearing for their lives after four armed teenagers allegedly broke into their Rochedale home, threatening to shoot them.
Five teenagers were later arrested, charged with a string of offences including home invasions and carjackings across Brisbane’s southside and the Gold Coast.
