John Makita

I'd never been to the house in McKellar after it had happened.

I just couldn't bring myself to do that.

So it was the hidey hole.

I had no idea at all that there was such a thing.

We always used to joke as the family as if anything ever happened to them and they eventually passed away that we would have to literally leave no stone unturned in the house to find to make sure we're not just throwing valuables out.

Yeah, look, they were very, very scared after that had happened.

The first time obviously was a big jolt, especially losing so much.

But to be physically attacked that my grandmother was in that second home invasion that they had or robbery, if we call it that,

They felt very unsecure.

They did lock their doors more than they used to because my grandmother and grandfather always had this thing where you could essentially walk straight into the garage, which was underneath their house in Red Hill.

The roller door sometimes was left open.

I mean, they were just trusting of other people.

But from that point, it all changed.

When they had bought the house in McKellar, they had basically turned it into Fort Knox.

And I think that came out through the police investigation and the trial where, you know, they put up high fences.

They basically refurbished the whole house.

There was dead locks.

There was large gates everywhere.

And unfortunately, in the end, the place that the two offenders got through was just somewhere which we would never thought somebody would fit through.

Well, my grandparents were quite active in the Hungarian-Australian club and also in the Hungarian community, they were very well respected and widely known.