House stripped of most of roof by home invader throwing tiles at police

A man has torn most of the tiles off the roof of a house in Western Australia, hurling them at police and sparking a siege during a home invasion. Police said the man was acting strangely with a hammer and broke into a house in Osborne Park, Perth, in the early hours of Thursday morning. He then climbed onto the roof of the double-storey home and pelted a police vehicle with roof tiles. A Tactical Response Group negotiator eventually persuaded the man to give himself up, but much of the roof was stripped of tiles and the ceiling of the home collapsed.



Hundreds of broken tiles littered the front yard of the home and also smashed into rooms on the upper storey. Neighbour Sally Shackleton said she heard a loud noise outside her home just after midnight and thought it was New Year celebrations, but was shocked to get up in the morning and realise it was the sound of smashing tiles across the street. "We thought it was like fireworks," she said. "But then we heard the police helicopter overhead. We didn't come and look so we didn't know what it was and then we saw this [the damage].



"I thought it must have been an explosion, and I couldn't believe it when I saw it." When told the damage was done by a man throwing roof tiles at police, she was shocked. "Really, one man did that? That's unbelievable," she said. Homeowner Tri Yung came home from his night shift to find the home badly damaged. "I have no idea what happened. I just came back from work and saw this [damage]," he said. "I worked all night. Someone came in, went up onto the roof and damaged the whole house. I'm very shocked to come home on New Year's Day and see all this.


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"Two and a half years of hard work [renovating the house] and now it's damaged in a matter of minutes." Mr Yung estimated the damage bill would be between $50,000 and $100,000. But he said he was unsure if his property was insured. "It will take a lot of time to repair, maybe six months," he said. "I'm not sure if I'm insured. I had a letter to say my insurance ran out, pay some money. I have to check to see if I'm still insured." A 32-year old man from Alkimos was charged over the siege. He is due to appear in court later today to face several charges including three counts of criminal damage, assaulting a public officer and aggravated burglary.