A man has been arrested after crashing an allegedly stolen ute into a house and trying to swim away from police during three hours of chaos on Queensland’s Sunshine Coast.
Police say the allegedly stolen Ford Ranger was driven into the home on Anning Avenue in the Caloundra suburb of Golden Beach, about 100km north of Brisbane, just after 5.30am today.
Emma and Aaron Mason Smith were asleep inside and said it was just “destruction everywhere”.
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“It sounded like a bomb had gone off,” Emma said.
Police say the driver quickly took off, with homeowner Aaron in pursuit as the man headed for the ocean.
“I just woke up and thought, ‘Jesus, is this the end of the world?’ Something crashed into my house. I didn’t know what was going on,” he said.
“(I) chased him down the road out onto the Esplanade, and then waded into the water and was trying to get away.”
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Officers say the 28-year-old Caboolture man fled before being found swimming away in the nearby Pumicestone Passage, where he climbed into two different boats.
Dozens of officers and paramedics rushed to a nearby marina.
For almost an hour, negotiators tried to coax him out.
He was allegedly armed and threatened officers and even poured petrol on himself, police said.
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Police launched pepper spray and finally, admitting defeat, he surrendered with his hands in the air.
“I have not been to an incident like this in my time,” Brad Doolan from Queensland Police said.
He was taken to hospital, with charges expected to be laid later tonight.
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But for Emma and Aaron, the ordeal is far from over.
Their home won’t be safe to return to for quite some time.
Police say the Ranger had been stolen from Wurtulla, about 8km north of Golden Beach, earlier this morning.
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